WIREDGOV

Blog posted by: Tom Flynn, Tuesday, 26 October 2021.

In partnership with Housing Justice and on behalf of the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, Homeless Link are delighted to announce £3.8 million of Homelessness Transformation Funding has been awarded, £1 million of which is for Capital and £2.8 million for Revenue.

See a full list of the 2021 grantees and an evaluation overview of the 2020 Homelessness Transformation Fund.

This funding will support faith, community and voluntary groups to provide better quality, dignified provision for individuals experiencing rough sleeping, offering more sustainable routes off the streets. This will include funding single room / self-contained and COVID-19 secure accommodation for people experiencing rough sleeping this winter. It is also designed to fund non-residential support for rough sleepers where applicants can demonstrate a specific need and targeted solution.  

63 grants have been awarded to Homelessness organisations across England. Organisations range considerably in their size and offer. Grants will be spent on organisational activities that ensure better quality provision and will support innovative models for support and move on.

There was a strong competition for the grants a high number of agencies keen to develop and transition their services to improve how they respond to homelessness. Organisations who were successful demonstrated exceptional best practice and truly transformative pieces of work that will make significant impact over the Winter period.

Revenue grants range in nature, from funding to support the cost of paying for hotel rooms with ensuite bathrooms, to staff time to provide 1:1 support and to rent and utilities for a shared house.

A Revenue grant of £89,430 was awarded to InHope in Bristol. This grant will offer another step on the journey for a communal night shelter to move to higher quality provision. The grant will transform InHope’s two night shelters (Spring of Hope; Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter), from dormitory and rotating shelters, into secure, single room provision offering a total of 12 beds throughout the winter period. 

Capital grants also ranged in nature, from funding to purchase a 5-bedroom HMO property, to taking several bedrooms out of service and subdividing them to create en-suite bathrooms.

A Capital grant of £83,299 was awarded to King’s Arms Project in Bedford. This grant will support the transformation of a property they currently lease enabling them to reconfigure it to allow them to run a hybrid service offering direct emergency access and longer-term residential support under the same roof. They will be adding an additional 3 extra bedrooms to a property they currently use as a shared house for 8 individuals with low support. The reconfiguration of the building would allow then to them to divide the property up according to demand at any one time, enabling a combination of either 3, 4 or 7 of the rooms to be used as direct access rooms at any one time. This reconfiguration will enable them to provide high quality accommodation in the winter months and then convert the use of the rooms back to longer term low support accommodation for the rest of the year.

Homeless link and Housing Justice will now work as closely as possible with grantees to support them through the duration of their grant.