Homelessness: Coronavirus

(asked on 21st September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to reimburse local authorities for costs incurred in housing the homeless during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Kelly Tolhurst Portrait
Kelly Tolhurst
This question was answered on 29th September 2020

The Government provided £4.3 billion to help councils to manage the impacts of COVID-19 which includes their work to support homeless people, £3.7 billion of which is unringfenced, and £600 million to support social care. The Government provided a further £3.2 million in emergency funding for local authorities to support vulnerable rough sleepers.

On 18 July, the Government launched the Next Steps Accommodation Programme, inviting bids for additional funding in 2020/2021 to pay for immediate?support?to ensure that people housed during the pandemic do not return to the streets,?and to?deliver longer-term move-on accommodation.

On 17 September we announced allocations of £91.5 million from the Next Steps Accommodation Programme to 274 councils in England to help vulnerable people housed during the pandemic. An additional £13.5 million will be used to enable local authorities to tackle new and emerging challenges over the winter. Applications for funding for the longer-term accommodation element of the Next Steps Accommodation Programme are currently being considered.

Reticulating Splines