Newham Council has been awarded £1.2million to help vulnerable rough sleepers get the support they need to rebuild their lives.
The funding has been awarded following a successful bid to the government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative and will be used to build on significant work already carried out by the council to help rough sleepers through a variety of measures including accommodation, access to specialist health services and housing advice.
The government money will help fund the 23 assessment beds at Caritas Anchor House in Canning Town. Anchor House is commissioned by the council to deliver the Rough Sleeper Assessment Hub providing accommodation and specialist support to people already sleeping rough. The funding will also be used to continue to support 10 rough sleeper outreach workers.
In recognition of the funding, which is one of the highest allocations to a local authority in the country, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick MP paid a visit to Anchor House in Canning Town.
Mr Jenrick was joined by Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz, Deputy Mayor of Newham and lead member for Housing, Councillor John Gray, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care and Councillor Shaban Mohammed, Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing Services. The group was given a tour of the facilities and met with a number of residents who had been supported by the service.
Mayor Fiaz said: “The announcement of this additional funding is much welcomed because we are at the forefront of the housing crisis and also experiencing a significant issue with regards to rough sleeping. We’re really pleased we’ll be able to increase our outreach team and continue to work in collaboration with Anchor House to provide much needed housing units and support for those rough sleepers with high complex needs.
“We are driving forward a number of interventions that need to be put in place to tackle the problem. This money will go some way but we need a multi-faceted approach. Just focusing on rough sleeping is not going to address the substantive issue of us needing more genuinely affordable homes. We’re looking forward to working with the government to ensure the rough sleeping situation in Newham is tackled once and for all but we will continue to advocate that we get the right level of resources to deal with the challenge and that we are part of a national movement to end the immorality of rough sleeping in this country.”
Newham Council has already announced plans in its 2020-23 budget proposals to spend £1.4m per annum (subject to confirmation by Full Council) to improve the services supporting rough sleepers and creating better preventative services to reduce the risk of others becoming homeless. A budget of £400,000 each year is also proposed to create a team to bring empty properties back into use to improve the range of offers for families in need.
A new temporary 25-bed assessment hub called Stepping Stones is now operating in Forest Gate to allow rough sleepers to begin the journey off the streets, with needs like health, money and immigration advice, addiction and mental health support available under one roof. The ambition is to run this hub during the winter months.
Since August 2019, the council has made offers of accommodation to 56 rough sleepers with 49 placements made. Engagement work will continue with anyone who has refused an offer of accommodation to look at what further support can be provided.
In December 2019, the council published a dedicated Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy, the first in a decade which has compassion and care at its core. The strategy has the support of homeless charity Shelter and covers the period December 2019 to December 2021.
The strategy consists of an interim programme and a longer term plan. The interim programme tackles the immediate and urgent issues like implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and measures to deal with rough sleeping. These include establishing a rough sleeping taskforce bringing together representatives across the council and partners and setting up Newham Homelessness Action Group, a co-production forum to find grassroots solutions.