Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:           1)       That £756,600 of funding, ringfenced for homelessness services, be spent on the procurement of an Intensive Support Service and an Early Intervention Service.

2)           That the spending on this service be derived from ringfenced government grants in the first instance and ringfenced reserves to make up any shortfall.

Reason for Decision

To support the implementation of the council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-2029.

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Councillor Rust presented a report which explained that the Council had recently adopted its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, “Ending Homelessness, Person by Person” for 2024-2029. To help towards the delivery of this strategy, the council were procuring the following two services for a minimum three-year period:

• An Intensive Support Service to meet the needs of people whose housing needs have not yet been sustainably met (including people sleeping rough, ‘sofa surfing’ or otherwise vulnerably housed)
• An Early Intervention Service to provide targeted support to people at risk of losing their homes (including families within the Private Rented Sector, and people at risk of being evicted by family members).

The first of these services was currently funded by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) under its Rough Sleeping Initiative programme. The council would receive a central government grant for rough sleeping prevention and recovery for 2025/26 but had received no confirmation beyond this date. In the event that there was no further funding extension, it was intended to use reserve funds, which had previously been ringfenced for homelessness services, to commission and deliver the service.

RESOLVED:                       1)               That £756,600 of funding, ringfenced for homelessness services, be spent on the procurement of an Intensive Support Service and an Early Intervention Service.

2)            That the spending on this service be derived from ringfenced government grants in the first instance and ringfenced reserves to make up any shortfall.

Reason for Decision

To support the implementation of the council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-2029.