North East homelessness charity is urging the government to put more funding into support
Emmaus North East says the number of those homeless are rising
A North East homelessness charity is calling on the government to provide more funding to help those who are homeless.
They tell us that the number of those experiencing homelessness are on the rise and that support is vital in tackling the issue.
Ruth Parker, CEO at Emmaus North East, said: "I think the government has announced a £233 million increase in the budget to support homeless people. I'm really interested in how much of that is going to hit the North East and in turn, how much of that is going to come to organisations like Emmaus North East.
"The support element, which includes mental health support, dependency support, employability, support to really, really turn somebody's life around often lacks funding. I'm really interested as to how that is going to be funded moving forward.
"We need more accommodation. We know that the numbers of homeless people are rising and, in particular young homeless people as well. So, having more accommodation is really important. We have a blockage with move on accommodation when people are ready to go on their own and we desperately need funding all of the time to offer more support to people.
"We actually help in saving funds for the NHS and public sector organisations like the police. So, taking somebody into accommodation, offering them a home does improve public safety and offering counselling support and some of the other support services we do provide for people, reduces that burden on the NHS."