Robert Buckland MP has welcomed news that Swindon has been awarded £194,125 from the Government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative Fund.
A total of £30m has been allocated across 83 local authorities with the highest levels of rough sleeping as part of a package to support the work of the new Rough Sleeping Initiative Team. This funding will provide for over 500 new staff focused on rough sleeping. This will include more outreach workers to engage with people on the streets, specialist mental health and substance misuse workers and dedicated co-ordinators to drive efforts to reduce rough sleeping in their areas. It will also provide over 1700 new bedspaces including both emergency and settled accommodation.
The new Rough Sleeping Initiative team will continue to work closely with local areas to implement the plans and to monitor their progress.
Robert Buckland MP commented: “This money is further help to tackle rough sleeping in our town and is another significant move forward in the Government’s plans to reduce rough sleeping. This builds on the funding Swindon received last year, as well as the significant extra funds for the flexible homelessness fund that I helped to secure for the Council.
“The funding will be followed by a cross-government strategy, published in July, which will set out plans to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it altogether by 2027 to meet the Conservative Manifesto commitment. “