Decision details

RESOLVED:

(1)   That Cabinet approved the allocation of Homelessness Prevention Grant funding as follows:

o   Keystage Housing (£134k in 2023/24, £151k in 2024/25)

o   OneYMCA (£172k in 2023/24, £172k in 2024/25)

o   SADA core housing service (£20k in 2024/25)

o   Rough sleeper outreach service (£35k in 2024/25)

(2)   That Cabinet approved the allocation of additional Homelessness Prevention Grant funding provided for domestic abuse duties as follows:

o   SADA Community Project (£35k in 2023/24 and £36k in 2024/25)

(3)   That Cabinet noted the recent DLUHC announcement of a Ukraine Homelessness Prevention Grant top-up for the Council for 2023/24.

REASONS FOR DECISION:

(1)   There is an urgent need to secure accommodation-based support services for single homeless people in the district. Adopting the recommendations at 2.1(A), 2.1(B) and 2.1(D) would secure the provision of existing, high quality, local services for the next two years, which is in line with the priorities set out in the Council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, contained within the Council’s Housing Strategy 2019- 2024.

(2)   Domestic abuse remains a significant driver of homelessness. Adopting the recommendations at 2.1(C) and 2.2(A) would extend the core housing service that Survivors Against Domestic Abuse (SADA) provides the Council with for a further year and enable expansion of SADA services into the community. SADA is a local specialist provider of domestic abuse support and accommodation services.