£2.4m cash boost helps BCP Council get homeless people off the streets in Christchurch

A PROJECT to help homeless people off the streets has been boosted by an award of £2,463,893.

BCP Council was given the cash by central government as part of its Rough Sleeping Initiative.

Cllr Robert Lawton, portfolio holder for housing, said: “We welcome this additional funding, which will help us to continue and build on the huge efforts that are taking place to help people who’ve been rough sleeping, as well as ensuring we are doing all we can to prevent people from becoming homeless in the future.”

He said the council is ‘fully committed’ to ending homelessness completely across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The funding will enable the expansion of the council’s ‘Housing First’ project, which assists vulnerable people sleeping on the street by getting them into emergency accommodation then signposting them to supportive services.

Cllr Lawton said despite the success of the scheme, the council could not become “complacent”.

“We know that nationally we will continue to see the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our communities,” he said. “So it’s important that we are able to continue our focus on intervention and prevention measures to help the most vulnerable people in our towns.”