I welcome the additional £28 million funding package to help support rough sleepers find appropriate accommodation and work with the NHS to make sure this cohort is vaccinated.
My casework team have helped rough sleepers move from the streets to safe accommodation and it is imperative we make sure people are in a safe space and fully vaccinated, especially in these tough Winter months. Therefore, I welcome this additional funding, following the £202 million to tackle rough sleeping, which was introduced earlier this year.
The Government have already provided significant funding and support for people sleeping rough throughout the pandemic, including over £202 million for the Rough Sleeping Initiative and £433 million to deliver 6,000 move-on homes, to ensure that those brought in throughout the pandemic do not return to the streets. The work to end rough sleeping is having a huge impact as rough sleeping fell by 37% last year.
Alongside the extra support for emergency accommodation, The Government have announced some further measures to increase vaccination levels:
• Working closely with NHSEI’s Vaccine Deployment Programme to target mobile vaccination units to areas where there may be a high concentration of unvaccinated people sleeping rough.
• A £3.2 million vaccination incentivisation package. This will comprise of funding direct to local authorities to be used flexibly to encourage the uptake of vaccination amongst people sleeping rough. This funding will be used to incentivise vaccination amongst this cohort using local knowledge and understanding of the issues they face.
Mid Sussex District Council will receive an additional £155,721 for the year of 2021-2022.
Commenting, Mid Sussex District Council Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, Cllr Robert Salisbury said:
“This Council has supported the Government’s effort to take all those sleeping rough off our streets during the pandemic and to date we have helped 53 rough sleepers, despite this we are aware of at least 6 people sleeping rough in this district. We welcome this further funding and will use it to continue to support those who are in temporary accommodation and to encourage those who are sleeping rough to leave the streets.”
Additional information:
Further information on how Mid Sussex District Council help with Rough Sleeping: Rough Sleepers - Mid Sussex District Council