Tens of thousands of people will be protected from homelessness as a result of a new £316 million funding boost to the government's Homelessness Prevention Grant, which supports households in England who are homeless or at risk of losing their home.
The Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk has been allocated total funding of £479,587. The council will use this funding to help people at risk of homelessness to find a new home, access support for unexpected evictions and secure temporary accommodation where needed. The funding will be allocated to all councils responsible for housing in England based on local homelessness need in individual areas.
This new investment underlines the government’s commitment to ensure people at risk of becoming homeless, across the country, get help more quickly. Since the Homelessness Reduction Act came into force in 2018, over 400,000 households have been successfully prevented from losing their homes or supported into settled accommodation, with rough sleeping levels falling 37% between 2019 and 2020.
The Homelessness Prevention Grant, available for 2022/23, is on top of the recently-announced £66 million to provide rough sleepers with safe and warm accommodation and drug and alcohol treatment services this winter, and £65 million support package for vulnerable renters struggling due to the impact of the pandemic. Overall, the government is investing £2 billion over the next three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
Domestic abuse
The funding includes an additional £5.8 million to support people forced into homelessness by domestic abuse.
In King's Lynn and West Norfolk, £9,610 will be put towards those suffering from domestic abuse.
This follows the landmark Domestic Abuse Act, which ensures councils give people who find themselves in this situation a 'priority need' for assistance.
Protect and Vaccinate scheme
The government has also announced a £28 million funding boost to help rough sleepers get their COVID-19 vaccines and move into safe accommodation.
The Borough Council for King's Lynn and West Norfolk have been awarded £10,000 towards this objective.
From what we know about the low vaccination rates amongst the rough sleeping population, Omicron presents a severe risk to people sleeping rough.
The Protect and Vaccinate scheme will help to increase vaccine uptake among people who are homeless and sleeping rough, by supporting outreach work in shelters to educate people about the dangers of the virus, giving money to councils to provide safe and secure accommodation while their level of vaccination is increased and delivering mobile vaccinations.
All individuals, regardless of immigration status, are eligible to receive a vaccine and do not need an NHS number to do so. Local authorities have been askeddfs to include this cohort in their plans, and – as ever – ensure that they are exhausting all options within the law to support them.
