Justin Tomlinson MP has welcomed the Government's announcement on how it will spend £25.6m of new funding to tackle rough sleeping across the country through the Rapid Rehousing Pathway.
Swindon was one of 42 early adopters of the Rapid Rehousing Pathway - which forms part of the Government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative - and will benefit from an extra £115,000 of dedicated funding.
The Pathway brings together four policy elements (Somewhere Safe to Stay, Supported Lettings, Navigators, and Local Lettings Agencies) that will help rough sleepers, and those at risk of rough sleeping, access the support and settled housing they need to leave the streets for good.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Brokenshire MP announced that the funding will provide:
- 20 additional Somewhere Safe to Stay hubs, to rapidly assess the needs of people who are sleeping rough and those who are at risk of sleeping rough and support them to get the right help quickly. This will bring the total number of hubs to 31, 16 more than the minimum that we committed to in the 2018 Rough Sleeping Strategy.
- Up to £6.8 million of funding for 61 areas for Supported Lettings, offering flexible support funding to help people with a history of rough sleeping to sustain their tenancies in homes made newly available across the housing sector.
- At least 130 Navigators who will develop relationships with and help over 2,500 people who sleep rough to access appropriate local services, get off the streets and into settled accommodation.
- Up to £3.5 million to establish or support 30 Local lettings agencies to source, identify, or provide homes and advice for rough sleepers or those at risk.
The new Pathway builds on the work the Government is already doing nationally to reduce rough sleeping through the new Rough Sleeping Strategy. Backed by a £100 million investment, the complete Rough Sleeping Strategy aims to fulfil the Government’s ambition to eliminate rough sleeping by 2027.
Developed across Government in conjunction with charities and experts, it lays out a 3-pronged approach to tackling rough sleeping, including:
- preventing rough sleeping by providing timely support to those at risk
- intervening to help people already on the streets get swift, targeted support
- helping people recover, find a new home quickly and rebuild their lives
Last year the Government provided £30 million investment specifically for the Rough Sleeping Initiative fund for 2018-19 – of which Swindon received £194,000.
The Government rightly followed this up with a further £34 million investment for 2019-20, of which Swindon received £255,125 this year - an increase of more than a third on last year.
Locally, Swindon Borough Council spends £1.4 million a year on a range of schemes to support homeless individuals in the town, including five key supported housing schemes that specialise in street homeless, offenders, young people, and those suffering from domestic abuse.
Justin Tomlinson MP said: “I am pleased the Government continues to invest in efforts to tackle rough sleeping. The Rough Sleeping Initiative and the Rapid Rehousing Pathway offer an ambitious and pragmatic way of achieving the Government’s target of eliminating rough sleeping – and it is positive that Swindon's work as an early adopter of the strategy has been recognised.”
