Wiltshire Council receives almost £50,000 to help rough sleepers

Wiltshire Council have been given £47,456.40 by the government to continue to support rough sleepers in the county.

The funding will be spent on a range of measures, including some in Salisbury, to provide accommodation for those struggling because of the pandemic.

274 local authorities have received a share of £91.5m from a rough sleeping initiative scheme by the government.

The money will help to fund:

• The retention of 10 units of accommodation at Erskine 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 housing properties to repurpose to create nine units of housing of multiple occupations for shared, low-support, independent living.

• The creation of three one-bedroom, housing-led model units, in conjunction with Aster housing association.

• The creation of three one-bedroom housing units in conjunction with Our Wilton at Erskin House.

• Additional flexibility to meet the needs of any new rough sleepers due to limitations of shared accommodation during the winter months.

Cllr Richard Clewer, Wiltshire Council 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 on StreetLink, as this will enable our teams to engage with them and support them, if they aren't already."

FUNDING BID

Wiltshire Council are also looking for more money to help support house rough sleepers.

They are going to be submitting a bid to the government for a further £544,000.

This money would be used to purchase a few houses that can be repurposed into accommodation while also recruiting an intensive support officer for three years.

• homeless
• rough sleepers
• wiltshire