Responding to £105 million of funding announced by the Government to help keep rough sleepers safe and off the streets, Cllr David Renard, the Local Government Association’s housing spokesman, said:
“We are pleased the Government has announced further much-needed funding to help councils continue supporting rough sleepers and keeping them off the street.
“Many rough sleepers are likely to have complex support needs, and so the money to tackle substance misuse will enable drug and alcohol treatment providers to continue supporting people as we look to move them into long-term housing.
“Councils want to take this opportunity to change the lives of our most vulnerable residents and have already been working up plans to support people to move on from emergency accommodation.
“Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, we have seen an incredible effort by councils to get the overwhelming majority – nearly 15,000 – of rough sleepers and homeless people into housing.
“We would now like to see the Government follow this announcement by temporarily removing the No Recourse to Public Funds condition during the current crisis to reduce public health risks and pressures on homelessness services by enabling people to access welfare benefits.
“In addition, allowing councils to be able to keep 100 per cent of receipts from Right to Buy sales and extending the deadline to spend the money to at least five years, will allow councils to get on with the job of building the new homes that people in their areas desperately need.”
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