Liverpool City Council is to benefit from additional funding to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness this year.
The Government has today announced that the city is to have its rough sleeping prevent and recovery grant almost doubled from £1.7 million to £3.1 million.
It will help fund a range of additional services to prevent and reduce rough sleeping, including ensuring the city has robust plans to keep rough sleepers safe over for winter, providing additional accommodation for people with complex needs with targeted support and a range of increased options to help people move into accommodation with support.
There is also extra funding of £126k to support children experiencing homelessness, and £54k for drug and alcohol treatment.
In total, the Government is this year providing £8.1 million to the city for homelessness services.
The council is also investing an additional £1.9 million to grow the Housing Solutions Service to manage the volumes of homeless applications and increase early intervention and prevention, with specialist roles created to support the likes of young people, domestic abuse survivors, rough sleeper and refugees.
At the last Cabinet meeting, the council approved funding to create a new hub which will handle homelessness applications.
The city is to also offer grants of up to £20k to the landlords of empty properties to bring around 360 back into use to reduce the numbers in temporary accommodation, which will cut millions of pounds from the overall homelessness bill.
Council Leader, Cllr Liam Robinson, said: “I am really pleased the Government has recognised the challenges we are facing with homelessness by giving us additional funding.
“We already have a really strong network of organisations who support homeless people in the city, and this money will help us provide additional support.
“When combined with the additional investment we are making, it demonstrates that we are absolutely determined to tackle this issue head on.
“We have a comprehensive plan to get people off the streets more quickly, reduce the time they spend in temporary accommodation and increase the supply of stable, long-term tenancies.”