Government announce £105m (€116m) next step for rough sleepers

The government will invest £105m to prevent rough sleepers returning to the streets once stay in hotels finishes at the end of the month

The Everyone In scheme has seen 14,610 rough sleepers housed in hotels since the end of March with the government setting up the Rough Sleeping Taskforce, chaired by Dame Louise Casey, to find safe, long-term homes beyond the Covid-19 lockdown.

That led to a pledge to make 6,000 housing units available – including 3,300 in the next 12 months – backed by accelerated funding of £433m (€479m), to allow Dame Casey to work with councils to find suitable properties.

The government has vowed to ensure that doesn’t happen since March and backed up their efforts today, with £85m (€94m), of new funding from the Treasury alongside £20m (€22m), from refocusing existing homelessness and rough sleeping budgets.

That money will be used to cover deposits for accommodation and securing alternative rooms already available and ready for use, with the government targeting student accommodation which is left empty over the summer months as one alternative to hotels.