WIREDGOV

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced a new Night Shelter Transformation Fund of up to £10million in grants. The Night Shelter Transformation Fund is administered by DLUHC, working in partnership with Homeless Link and Housing Justice who will provide support to prospective applicants and grant holders.

Applications for the fund opened yesterday, July 26th and will close on August 26th.

The funding will be distributed in three streams until March 2025. These streams include: Revenue funding to support organisations with running costs of transformative services, Capital costs to support self-contained accommodation, and a new Capital Incubator fund to enable organisations to develop their capital plans.

To find out more about the Fund and how to apply, Homeless Link and Housing Justice are running a series of webinars:

• 3rd August: for Local Authorities considering their winter planning
• 4th August: as an introduction to the Fund for interested organisations
• 9th August: Webinars and Q&A discussion to explore details of Revenue and CapitalFunds.

You can also find the fund prospectus here.

The fund will focus not only on organisations providing accommodation but on holistic and truly transformative services. The fund has three aims which will be taken into consideration for all applications made. These include provision of high-quality, secure accommodation that is available year-round, enhanced quality and availability of support services, intensive support and signposting for rough sleepers who face barriers connecting with statutory services.

The Night Shelter Transformation Fund will support:

• Small to medium sized organisations, with up to £5million annual turnover. (It is possible for organisations with a higher turnover to be considered, such as if they can evidence that they are the only emergency provider over winter in a particular area.)
• Organisations working directly with people who are rough sleeping, in a night shelter setting or provided a night shelter on or after 2019/20
• Where more than 50 per cent of beneficiaries are people experiencing homelessness.
• Incorporated registered charity, CIO, Community Benefit Society or CIC
• Based in and operating in England

The Night Shelter Transformation Fund builds on two previous DLUHC funds managed by Homeless Link and Housing Justice. Last year’s Homelessness Transformation Fund allocated 62 charities across England with £3.7million in funding. The fund enabled provision of self-contained accommodation that allowed organisations to improve the quality of their accommodation and support offer. This year’s fund builds on this work enabling self-contained provision into the longer term with funding commitments to March 2025.

If you would like to speak to someone in more detail about the fund please either email Homeless Link or Housing Justice.