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Thousands of vulnerable people who were housed during the pandemic will be helped to stay in accommodation聽this year thanks to the allocations of funding announced today (17 September 2020) by聽Housing聽Secretary聽Rt Hon聽Robert聽Jenrick.

274 local聽councils聽will share 拢91.5 million of government funding to ensure interim accommodation and support for the most vulnerable people, including by helping people into the private rented sector, secure interim accommodation such as聽supported housing,聽and assess聽the聽wider support聽these people need聽in order to rebuild their lives.聽An additional 拢13.5 million fund will be used to enable local authorities to tackle new or emerging challenges.

Separately, applications are now being considered for a further 拢161 million fund intended to provide over 3,300 additional supported homes this year for those聽sleeping rough or聽currently housed in emergency accommodation. The bidding has now closed and details on successful bids will be announced in due course. This is part of聽broader聽support to聽provide 6,000 such homes over four years.

The Next Steps Accommodation Programme is part of the government鈥檚 landmark聽commitment to end rough sleeping for good.

Secretary of State for Housing, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick聽MP said:

The incredible national effort to support rough sleepers during the pandemic has protected many lives and is widely regarded as one of the most successful programmes of its kind in the world. I鈥檓 hugely grateful to all those involved.

This funding will ensure that vulnerable people and rough sleepers continue to have safe accommodation and the care and support they need, to ensure as few as possible return to the streets.

Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Kelly Tolhurst MP said:

This funding will make a difference to many thousands of vulnerable peoples鈥� lives, continuing聽to聽help聽them聽address complex needs, and聽to rebuild their lives, away from the streets in safer interim聽accommodation.

I want to commend the Rough Sleeping Taskforce,聽council, providers and聽partners for聽the support they鈥檝e provided so far.聽聽Together, we鈥檙e providing the聽support required to end rough sleeping and聽break聽the cycle of homelessness聽once and for all.

Chief Executive of St Mungo鈥檚 Steve Douglas said:

We welcome the speed with which this funding has been allocated. It will be for both homes and support, and will build on the success of the 鈥楨veryone In鈥� initiative, which enabled us, and other homelessness charities and service providers, to help almost 15,000 people sleeping rough or at risk of homelessness to move into emergency accommodation during the pandemic, and to receive the support they needed. This undoubtedly saved lives.

We have seen what can be achieved when we work together. Going forward we want to work with government and partners on longer term solutions and hope that the homelessness review for a long term strategy will begin this autumn.

Further information

Through the government鈥檚 Everyone In programme approximately 15,000 vulnerable people have been housed in hotels and other forms of emergency accommodation, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes people coming in directly from the streets, people previously housed in shared night shelters and people who have become vulnerable to rough sleeping during the pandemic.

The Next Steps Accommodation Programme makes available the resources needed to support local authorities and their partners to ensure that the current provision that has been set up to safeguard people who were taken safely from the streets is able to continue for an appropriate length of time. Organisations聽who have put in successful聽bids have聽clearly demonstrated聽in their proposal how the funding will be used to rapidly support those in COVID-19 emergency accommodation. The funding is for use during 2020/21 only.

Regional allocations of Next Steps Accommodation Programme:

Further details of how much councils in England will receive can be found on the Next Steps Accommodation Programme page.