Thanet council has been awarded £3,808,270 of funding by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to support people sleeping rough or at risk of being on the streets.
The Rough Sleeping Initiative funding covers 2022-25 and this is the first time that it has been awarded for multiple years.
The three-year funding will allow the council to plan further ahead and work towards the government’s goal of ending rough sleeping by 2025. It will be used for earlier intervention to help prevent vulnerable people from becoming rough sleepers, and to support current rough sleepers into accommodation.
The council’s support for rough sleepers is delivered by RISE, an award winning multi-agency team which brings together staff from the council’s homeless and landlord liaison services teams with support workers and partner organisations including Serveco, Forward Trust, Invicta Healthcare, Paramount Independent Properties and Porchlight.
Since its launch in 2018, RISE has supported almost 1,150 individuals with 33,704 support activities, such as registering with GPs, setting up bank accounts and attending drug or alcohol support groups.
Cllr Jill Bayford, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “This funding is critical in allowing us to provide the support that, unfortunately, is needed by increasing numbers of people across the district.
“The rising cost of rent, utilities and food are likely to mean that we see an even higher need for homeless support in the future. This three-year funding will help us to plan further ahead, and to put the best possible help in place for everyone that needs it.”
To tell the council about a rough sleeper who needs help call 01843 577277 with as much information as possible about the location of the individual you are calling about. This number is available 24 hours a day.
If you have a property with shared or self-contained facilities that you think may provide suitable accommodation, please email roughsleeping@thanet.gov.uk
And they will come and multiply
Why you so negative.. What do you mean they come and multiply
Not negative Reb, just ignorant 🙄 xx
They won’t need to come – they’ll be here already.
If someone has lost their job, homelessness is a distinct possibility. Let’s say they live and work in Thanet and are renting a 1 bed flat for £650pm.
They are then made redundant.
If they are under 25, their monthly Universal Credit standard allowance, for living costs, will be £265.31 per month.
If they are over 25, up to State pension age, they will receive £334.91pm standard allowance.
The under 25’s will receive £299.17pm for their housing costs.
The 35 and over will receive £473.72 housing costs
Their £650pm rent hasn’t reduced.
So homelessness is just going to get worse.
Edit – that should say 35 and under will receive £299.17pm, for housing costs
Does anyone know what happened to the lady that has been there for a year or more?
Apparently been housed
That’s so good to hear Kathy.
And what exactly will TDC,spend this money ,homeless ,I hope, but get it goes into the gender kitty
Ray, your poetry is terrible. Nevermind bigoted.
It should have read general kitty,sorry
That’s a shame; ‘gender kitty’ is an excellent turn of phrase! Should’ve stuck with it!
More council subcommittees meetings with finger buffets to encourage the committee members to attend.
More money out of the homeless budget diverted?
Into pet schemes?
All above board dont you know.
Councillors do not get finger food or any other food at meetings, except at Christmas when the Chair of the council may invite councillors in for a drink and mince pie.
Oh really? Pmsl 🤣🤣🤣
Sounds like you’re on the payroll 😭😭😭
Less than Truss would have been giving her rich friends in tax cuts.
It should have read general kitty,sorry
That’s almost £1 million per year for the homeless. How many are there in Thanet? Seems like an awful lot of money for just a few people. For that money you should be able to build accommodation which has studio rooms with a communal lounge and kitchen and that would then be available indefinitely to assist those in a similar situation.
And sadly, it doesn’t matter what you do for some of the homeless they (1) don’t appreciate it (2) don’t do anything to help themselves and (3) still end up back on the streets.
If you read the article the money is also intended to prevent homelessness, it’s an quiet way of subsidising peoples rents, there will be an increase in the amount handed out in discretionary payments. Plus when you look at the list or organisations involved there’s a lot of wages and admin costs to covered one way or another, be interesting to see how much paramount are picking up each year and if the council enforce the planning condition on the old british legion to reinstate the subdivided rooms. Which of course they won’t it qas only applied to be a display of sanction for the blatant evasion of planning and listed building legislation.
Good, now spend it on the reason it was given for…social housing for those in urgent need !!
i do not understand how these dossers leave piles of food waste empty cups filthy bedding in doorways, and nothing is done about it , if someone drops a dog end they get a £90 spot fine ?
Bureaucracy will take a chunk of that . What ever a council does tends to eat money.leaving a slice for its intended purpose.
With the cost of living .High interests rates ect .There’s going to be a lot more homeless out there.
So many rough sleepers pitching tents in the ramsgate sea wall shelters under winterstoke gardens. Some have been there for ages, shame someone recently set fire to one of the tents and persons possessions.
£3.8m spent well will make a difference. Well!
We will see if it actually comes to fruition as I have been homeless and sleeping rough for over a year and thanet council has done absolutely sweet fa to help me seems they just can’t be bothered unless it suits them
Time was that homeless people were highly unlikely to use phrases such as ‘come to fruition’. Not that that made them any less deserving of help & understanding, just that nowadays being bright & literate no longer confers much protection against hitting rock bottom.
Anon, tell us more about the process with TDC if you like. Could be that someone will have some ideas.
I hope this goes a long way to preventing homelessness in future and better still, put a stop to beggars pretending to be homeless in order to get money for drugs and alcohol.
There are still too many rough sleepers in inappropriate places…Trinity Square memorial park for one. Why aren’t these people being helped and moved into some kind of accommodation? I agree also with the note regarding beggars. The man outside Westbrook Tesco who is only there in fine weather. Why aren’t bylaws against begging being used against these people who are clearly gaining money under false pretences, almost treat begging like a job? Come on TDC and Kent Police use the powers you already have to improve these situations for the wider community.
Ignorance is clearly bliss for a great deal of you commenting on here from what I’ve read so far and may I suggest to Jane especially that you actually know what you are talking about before making such ignorant statements which you clearly have no factual knowledge about 😡
Just Saying! 🤷🏽♀️
WOW! 🙀
SpecialK Bells – I do have factual knowledge as two very close friends have both volunteered over several winters in the winter shelter programme for the homeless. Both of them say that many of the same faces appear year after year despite help that has been given to them. One of them became so frustrated by their lack of helping themselves that she finally stopped volunteering.
So do not make assumptions on what you think I or others may or may not know.