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Homelessness organisations affected directly by COVID-19 can now apply for funding of £5.5million in a second round of grants distributed by Homeless Link.

Of this funding pot, £4.82 million is provided by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, for homelessness charities in England.

A further £680,000 is from Comic Relief, which raises money to support people living incredibly tough lives, and will primarily be allocated to charities based in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The funding aims to provide emergency financial assistance to local homelessness organisations, preventing closure, service cuts or staff redundancies threatened by increased operational costs and a loss of fundraised income due to the Coronavirus. It will also support organisations that have needed to expand or adapt their services in light of COVID-19 to support people experiencing homelessness safely and effectively.

Homeless Link is pleased to be able to provide this critical support to frontline services at this difficult time.

Apply for funding

We will fund frontline organisations – both our members and non-members – where more than half of beneficiaries are people experiencing homelessness. Applicants must have an annual turnover of less than £5 million. We will not fund organisations who received funding in round one.

We strongly advise applicants to read and follow the application guidance and frequently asked questions available below when applying to the Fund. Applications will be assessed, and decisions made, by an independent grants panel.

Fill in the application form here (Guidance for applicants and FAQs are available at the bottom of this page)

Key dates

• The grant application window will open on 13 July 2020.
• The deadline for the Comic Relief funding stream is 3 August 2020, with decisions made during August.
• There are two deadlines for the National Lottery Community Fund funding stream:
  • 3 August 2020; decisions made in early September, funds distributed by the end of September.
  • 14 September 2020; decisions made in mid-October, funds distributed by the end of November.
• Awards must be spent within six months of receipt of funds or by 19 April 2021.

Is this the right fund for you?

There will be high demand for this funding. We anticipate only being able to support a proportion of applications and having to make difficult decisions.

We advise you to consider all relevant funds that can be applied to at this time and choose the most appropriate one. For more information about COVID-19 response funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, go to: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/covid-19-community-led-organisations-recovery-scheme

Further info

If you have an enquiry that is not covered in the application guidance below, please contact fund@homelesslink.org.uk, inserting COVID-19 Homelessness Response Fund Enquiry as your email subject and providing your organisation and contact names.