Funding to help rough sleepers off the street and back on track

Lancaster City Council is set to benefit from Government funding to help get rough sleepers off the street and back on track.

A bid submitted by the council on behalf of Lancaster, Wyre and Fylde for a share of the Government’s £112M Rough Sleeping Initiative fund has been successful with the three districts being allocated £129,000 from the pot.

Lancaster’s portion of the funding will be used to help the council in delivering support for those who are rough sleeping against its developing homelessness strategy.

Councillor Caroline Jackson, Cabinet member with responsibility for housing and homelessness, said: “This is great news for our outreach support service and specialist partners.  More often than not, the root cause of problems which lead to homelessness and rough sleeping stems from people having experienced some sort of trauma in their lives whether it be during their early years or having fallen victim to post traumatic stress disorder.  With the provision of extra counselling and support, we hope to see some really positive results coming through for those who agree to taking up the help and support on offer.”

If you are worried about someone who might be sleeping rough, you can report your concerns by calling the Streetlink hotline 0300 500 0914.  Streetlink is a service that enables the public to alert local authorities in England about rough sleepers in their area.

Anyone who is homeless or in danger of becoming homeless should call the council as soon as possible on 01524 582257 (Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm).  At weekends when the office is closed you can call the council’s out of hours emergency line on 01524 67099.

Last updated: 14 February 2020