Council awarded funding to reduce homelessness

Hastings Borough Council said it would use the money to buy 25 properties to house homeless people

A council that said it feared going bankrupt because of a housing crisis has been awarded millions of pounds to help reduce homelessness.

Hastings Borough Council (HBC) said last summer that an increase in people in temporary accommodation was pushing it to the brink of effective bankruptcy.

Now it has been awarded £5.4m through the government’s Single Homeless Accommodation Programme.

HBC said it aimed to provide "settled homes and personalised support" for homeless people.

The funding will mean the council can buy at least 25 new homes, "allowing people to move out of homelessness for good", an HBC spokesperson said.

The authority said: "Plans are already in place with offers in on properties and other properties identified."

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Councillor Simon Willis, from HBC, said: “This funding is hugely welcomed, and it will allow us to provide much needed homes for some of our residents who face the most barriers to finding and maintaining a home.

"A safe, secure and stable place to call home is a fundamental right and we are very focussed on addressing our housing and homelessness issues in every way we can."

HBC said funding will be split between revenue to resource a housing management team and tenancy support service and the capital needed to buy and convert the properties to create the homes.

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