Covid-19: North East rough sleeper accommodation cost thousands

Councils were told to remove rough sleepers from the streets during the first wave of coronavirus

Councils have spent thousands of pounds on accommodation to meet a government directive to bring rough sleepers off the streets during the pandemic.

Since April, Durham County Council has spent £500,000, Newcastle City Council £155,000 and North Tyneside Council £100,000 on hotels and guest houses.

North Tyneside paid £82,979 to three providers, up from £10,140 in 2019.

Senior housing manager Paul Worth said it had "seen a higher number of vulnerable people needing support".

During the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020 councils were told to provide emergency shelter for all rough sleepers "to protect their health and stop wider transmission".

The government said local authorities would be reimbursed for the cost of accommodation and allocated £3.2m in "emergency" funding.

According to published figures, most of North Tyneside Council's spend on accommodation went to three properties, with one receiving £62,000 from the authority.

All three were used by other councils in the region, along with holiday cottages and other local and chain hotels.

'Kick them out?'

Founder of the charity North East Homeless, Brian Burridge, questioned what would happen when hotels were allowed to reopen to their usual guests, especially if short notice was given.

"What do you do, kick them back out again?" he said.

Councils had told him they were working on finding longer term tenancies, Mr Burridge said.

Newcastle City Council said it had "worked hard to help get rough sleepers off the streets of Newcastle during the coronavirus pandemic".

"We have seen a 74% reduction in the number of instances of people sleeping rough between 30 March 2020 and 10 January 2021 when compared to the same time period last year," a spokesperson said.

Middlesbrough Council and Durham County Council had both found temporary accommodation for more than 100 rough sleepers, they said.

Durham head of development and housing Stuart Timmiss said the authority was also "tackling the issues that lead to rough sleeping".

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