Government cash for rough sleepers

Wiltshire Council has received £47,000 from the government to help rough sleepers.

It's part of £91.5m allocated to 274 local authorities to help support vulnerable people housed during the pandemic.

The funding will be spent on a range of measures that will provide support and accommodation, and ultimately reduce rough sleeping in the county.

It will help to fund:

• The retention of 10 units of accommodation at Erskin House, Wilton, as move-on accommodation for rough sleepers. Currently these units are housing people that have been helped off the streets during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The retention of three three-bedroom properties in Salisbury as temporary shared accommodation.
• The use of three three-bedroom council houses to create nine units for shared, low-support, independent living.
• The creation of three one-bedroom units, in conjunction with Aster housing association.
• The creation of three one-bedroom units in conjunction with Our Wilton at Erskin House.
• Additional flexibility to meet the needs of any new rough sleepers during the winter months.

Richard Clewer, WC Cabinet Member for Housing, said: "We launched our homeless strategy last year before the pandemic and were successful in getting everyone in during the first months of lockdown. We are committed to make sure services and accommodation to get people off the streets is available for all those who will engage with us.

"This extra funding is fantastic news and will allow us to help more rough sleepers in the county. We have also applied for more than £500,000 of additional funding from government for further capital projects that will help us to create more safe accommodation for rough sleepers, and help them off the streets. We have also allocated a significant amount of our own funding to help get these projects off the ground.

"We are committed to helping rough sleepers in Wiltshire, and have a dedicated outreach team that is working hard to connect with people on the streets and find them suitable accommodation.

"If anyone sees a rough sleeper in Wiltshire, please report it (sic) on StreetLink, as this will enable our teams to engage with them and support them, if they aren't already."