James Brokenshire announces £30 million immediate support for rough sleepers

9 Jun 2018 10:27 AM

83 areas will share £30 million to boost the immediate support available to people living on the streets and help them into accommodation.

Councils across England with the highest numbers of rough sleepers will receive a share of this funding to significantly increase the support they are able to offer people now and also those at risk this coming winter.

Funding will be used to provide an additional 1,750 additional bed spaces for rough sleepers and an additional 531 dedicated homelessness workers. The funding will also help improve the co-ordination of services available to those in need and at risk.

Howard Sinclair, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said:

Given how dangerous it is to sleep rough, we are pleased that ministers have recognised that urgent action is needed to support people off the street and out of danger, as well as to prevent people ending up on the streets in the first place.

Effective outreach services are a crucial part of this along with sufficient emergency accommodation and assessment and support for people with mental health and substance use problems.

While this money is a welcome first step, we hope that the government will provide sufficient funding alongside its forthcoming rough sleeping strategy to achieve the Prime Minister’s goal of halving rough sleeping in this parliament and ending it within 10 years.

Among the projects this funding will cover:

Councils will be supported by the government’s new Rough Sleeping Initiative Team consisting of experts from the sector with a proven track record of successfully helping rough sleepers and preventing those at risk from becoming homeless.

Housing Secretary Rt Hon. James Brokenshire MP said:

No one should ever have to sleep rough. I am determined that more people living on the streets and those at risk this coming winter get the help they need now.

That’s why I am making £30 million available that will help councils boost the immediate support they are able to offer. Whether this pays for more beds or more outreach workers this will make a real difference now.

Many challenging factors lie behind rough sleeping, from mental health problems to addiction and our long-term strategy to be published this summer will outline how we plan to tackle them and eliminate rough sleeping for good.

This funding builds on significant government action already taken including the new Housing First Pilots announced last month to get people into stable and affordable accommodation. In April the Homelessness Reduction Act was introduced which will ensure more people are provided with the support they need sooner. In total the government is investing more than £1.2 billion to tackle all forms of homelessness.

Next month government will publish its long-term Rough Sleeping Strategy that has been developed in partnership with charities and local government. It will set out a comprehensive plan to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it entirely by 2027 by ensuring those sleeping rough have appropriate routes away from the streets – and prevent them from sleeping rough in the first place.

This latest funding will help local authorities using tried and tested methods in their area such as:

This latest announcement builds on government action to date, in the efforts to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027. This includes:

Further information

A full list of the individual allocations for 2018 to 2019 for local authorities with high levels of rough sleeping is available here:

Funding allocations

The Rough Sleeping Initiative Fund was announced on 30 March 2018.

The Rough Sleeping Team based at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is made up of rough sleeping and homelessness experts, drawn from, and funded by government departments and agencies with specialist knowledge across a wide-range of areas from housing, mental health to addiction.

The Homelessness Reduction Act came into effect on 3 April 2018. Read more on the Homelessness Reduction Act.