City council insists homeless people will continue to be housed
Homeless funds ‘remains in place’
A COUNCIL has insisted it is in ‘a very different position’ than last year and will continue to house rough sleepers, despite concerns over the government's plan to scrap a 'successful' scheme.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic last year government launched the Everyone In project – providing funding to local authorities to ensure all homeless people would be found safe accommodation to allow them to isolate.
In Portsmouth the council was awarded £1.5m to house rough sleepers temporarily in various hotels in the city.
Now the government has revealed it will not be renewing the Everyone In scheme during the third lockdown.
Portsmouth City Council has said all of its rough sleeping provision is is funded and ‘remains in place.’
As reported currently around 200 rough sleepers in the city have been housed in former student accommodation – at the Registry in St Michaels Road in the city centre and the Old Library in Elm Grove in Southsea.
The council is in the process of buying the sites, along with Kingsway House in Elm Grove, to create more permanent accommodation.
The council’s housing boss, Councillor Darren Sanders, said: ‘We are in a very different position compared to the first lockdown – we now have self-contained accommodation and some capacity to take more people in.
‘We have been very clear that we will not be dragooning rough sleepers into places they do not want to go though.’ Following the initial £1.5m from government a further £4.6m was granted to Portsmouth to create a three year plan for rough sleepers. An additional £682,000 was also awarded to create long term substance abuse support.
Cllr Cal Corkery, from the Labour party, believed more needed to be done.
‘The simple fact is there are people out on the streets of Portsmouth right now who would have been able to access the temporary accommodation provided during the first lockdown but are now being told they are ineligible for the current provision,’ he said. ‘That is not good enough and more must be done to help them.’