Plans to support more residents from being hit by homelessness have taken another step forward, after Haringey Council successfully secured a share of £1.7m in funding from the Department of Communities and Local Government Homelessness Prevention Programme.

The central Government programme aims to develop innovative new approaches to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.

Haringey has secured a share of two separate grants, as part of the North London Housing Partnership, which also includes Islington, Barnet, Camden, Westminster and Enfield local authorities. The first is £917,500 for a prevention programme which will see a network of trailblazer areas established across England to provide early assistance and advice to households to prevent them becoming homeless. The North London Housing Partnership also secured a Rough Sleeping Programme grant of £390,000 to bolster an existing programme to provide more emergency accommodation for rough sleepers or people at imminent risk of sleeping on the streets.

Separately the council has also been awarded a Rough Sleeping Programme grant of £397,875 as part of its renewed efforts to support residents in crisis who find themselves on the streets. This funding will:

• fund a programme delivered by charity Thames Reach to encourage voluntary sector and faith-based organisations to work with existing services to share information and co-ordinate resources to help rough sleepers in the borough.
• fund a project led by homelessness charity St Mungo’s to work with mental health, drug and alcohol services and North Middlesex Hospital to support rough sleepers.
• enable St Mungo’s to also work with the local community and with rough sleepers’ families and friends to establish a Community Hosting service to ensure people have a safe place to stay while the council works with them to resolve their situation.
• ensure Haringey can appoint a dedicated Rough Sleeping Strategy and Monitoring Co-ordinator to work with North London authorities and the Greater London Authority to tackle homelessness.

Cllr Alan Strickland, Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning said:

“We are determined to do more to prevent our residents becoming homeless and to better support those who do. Haringey’s Housing Strategy makes clear that we can’t tackle these issues alone, which is why we’re working closely with other boroughs and are pleased to have won this vital injection of new funding. It is not right that more and more people are finding themselves sleeping rough in 2017 and these new projects show our determination to do all we can to support residents in crisis.”