Council commissions Your Own Place to support response to rough sleeping in the borough

The council will work with Your Own Place to deliver a bespoke course which will provide help with tenancy skills, confidence and knowledge on how to sustain their tenancies to those who are homeless. This will include money management, tenancy responsibilities as well as mental health and well-being support.

A mixture of digital and socially distanced, face-to-face sessions will be used to deliver the course reflecting the needs of the participants. The first session took place on 22nd December, with Your Own Place loaning devices and running extra support to get people online, improving people's digital skills at the same time.

The course has been funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government through the Next Steps Accommodation Fund and is designed to give participants the skills and knowledge needed to sustain a tenancy and prevent cycles of homelessness.

Cllr Andy Grant, chairman of the housing and neighbourhood committee, said: "I'm extremely proud of the work the council carried out throughout the Covid pandemic to ensure those rough sleeping were offered emergency accommodation.

"Working with Your Own Place will allow us to ensure course participants are able to move onto more stable housing arrangements."

Rebecca White, CEO of Your Own Place, said: "We know that homelessness is an issue and it is now more critical than ever that we work on long-term solutions for all the residents of the borough. We're looking forward to trying some new ideas and building on our track record of changing lives."