When this content has been published
Published on 27 May 2021
Successful bid to combat rough sleeping
Teignbridge has been successful in leading on a joint bid with Souths Hams and West Devon Councils to the Rough Sleeper Initiative fund.
Our total joint allocation for the financial year 2021/22 is £344,016 of ring fenced funding.
The funds will enable the continuation of key interventions funded through the RSI funding stream over the past three years, including:
- A Rough Sleeper and Multi-Disciplinary Coordinator and Rough Sleeper Navigator based in Teignbridge
- A Recovery Navigator and Substance Misuse Nursed seconded two days a week each from Together Drug and Alcohol Services based in Teignbridge.
- A Rough Sleeper Navigator and Specialist Support worker based in South Hams and West Devon
- A funding pot to be used for enhanced landlord incentives to enable move-on into the private rented sector
- A funding pot to be used for personalised budgets for former rough sleepers (to enable meaningful occupational, attainment of qualifications etc.)
- Some funding towards Housing First project costs.
In addition, we have received some additional funding this year for the creation of two additional posts to support our work with rough sleepers:
- A Resettlement and Support Lead based in Teignbridge
- A Resettlement Officer based in South Hams and West Devon.
Along with South Hams and West Devon we remain committed to offering all verified rough sleepers with a local connection to our districts accommodation and the support needed to move away from a life of street attachment. Our Rough Sleeper Teams conduct regular street homeless outreach visits responding to all reports of people sleeping rough in our areas.
We seek to engage with people from the initial point of contact on the street, and then provide on-going bespoke and person centred support when they are placed into either temporary accommodation or one of our Housing First properties. This support continues right through to their resettlement into long term accommodation in either the private rented or social housing sectors.
We also lead a multi-disciplinary team of statutory and voluntary sector agencies which meets on a monthly basis to support those with the most complex needs.
As a result of this approach, we have managed to maintain low rough sleeper numbers in all three district areas, despite the significant rise in referrals of people sleeping rough that we saw during the early stages of the pandemic, largely as a result of people losing precarious accommodation arrangements with friends or family members.