South Gloucestershire Council has secured more than £900,000 of funding to support their work in keeping rough sleepers from living on the streets and helping them to secure a place to live.

The funding comes through a bid to the Government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme, which is a national scheme to reduce rough sleeping and prevent those in temporary accommodation from returning to sleeping rough.

At the start of the national lockdown in March, the council supported 75 individuals who were either sleeping rough, or at risk of sleeping rough, into temporary accommodation.

Many of those people are now accessing further housing and we are helping to guide the remainder into more permanent homes.

The ambition is that none of those individuals return to sleeping rough and the council have been working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Homes England and two local housing providers; Elim Housing Association Ltd and Curo Group, to develop successful bid proposals to support that aim.

The council have partnered with Elim Housing on proposals to develop three, three-bedroom shared homes, with occupants able to live there as long as they need to. Bringing the option of ongoing shared, social housing to South Gloucestershire could unlock the potential for future expansion of the innovative scheme.

They will also establish a ‘Housing First’ scheme, with six tenancies available for those with the most complex housing needs.

Both schemes focus on the successful resettlement and recovery of those who have a long and/or repeat history of rough sleeping.

The schemes will make a significant contribution to the provision of supported housing for rough sleepers and single homeless people in South Gloucestershire.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Housing, Councillor Ben Stokes said: “It is fantastic news that both of our bids to fund these innovative and important new schemes have been approved.

"It means we will be able to help more of those people who have been placed in temporary accommodation - either because they have been living on the streets, or have been in danger of sleeping rough – and provide them with a pathway into more permanent homes."

Paul Smith, Chief Executive of Elim Housing, said: ‘’We are delighted to have secured funding from the Next Steps Accommodation Programme. We now have the opportunity to provide up to nine new homes, with the potential to have a life changing impact on individual’s lives and future prospects.

Further information on the Government’s Next Steps Housing Programme can be found at: gov.uk/government/publications/next-steps-accommodation-programme-guidance-and-proposal-templates