Swindon council gets funding to aid rough sleepers

A council got extra money to help rough sleepers find emergency winter accommodation

More money has been granted to a council to get rough sleepers off the streets.

The money for Swindon Borough Council, allocated from the government's Rough Sleeping Winter Pressures Funding, comes to £96,793.

The money was supposed to help increase the use of emergency winter accommodation, officials said.

Janine Howarth, cabinet member for housing of the Labour-led authority, said: "We won't turn Britain around overnight, but, through new support to Swindon like this, change has begun."

She added: "We are tackling the housing crisis, building more homes and, through this huge boost to emergency funding, we are ensuring that as many as possible of those on the streets have somewhere to go; a warm bed to sleep in at night and somewhere to feel safe."

There has been a sharp rise in rough sleeping in recent years, with almost 360,000 households nationally approaching their council for help with homelessness over the last year, according to the Labour Party.

Temporary winter housing provision used to be offered at the Haven on Queen's Road, operated by Swindon Night Shelter and funded by Swindon Borough Council.

That has since been converted to more permanent accommodation, with temporary bad weather emergency provision as well.