The council has been awarded £390k for the next two financial years to work with partner organisations to pilot a new scheme that addresses the needs of rough sleepers.
This will involve setting up a multi-disciplinary street team with health services and charities to work with long-term rough sleepers to:
- Bring clinical expertise to the streets and offer treatment options that service users can access
- Tackle the key substance misuse and mental health problems experienced by the street homeless population
- Enable closer working between health services on voluntary admissions to hospital
- Enable closer working with the street outreach team in identifying those rough sleepers who need assistance to engage with support that is being offered
- Support Jimmy’s Cambridge with service user assessment at the assessment centre and support the decision making process on the person’s readiness for resettlement
- Offer identified service users a personalised support and treatment plan for as long as they need it
- Work only with entrenched rough sleepers as defined by the homelessness partnership in Cambridge.
Cllr Kevin Price, Executive Councillor for Housing, said: “Securing a grant of almost £400,000 is a great pre-Christmas bonus that will enable us to help a large number of Cambridge rough sleepers to get off the streets over the next two years, and fund the support they will need to stay off the streets too.
“Success in being one of the winning cities is a tribute to the professionalism of our council team and our tremendous partnership of nine organisations and local charities working to give homeless people who are sleeping rough in Cambridge a helping hand and the backing and resources they need to achieve a fresh start.”
Most people sleeping rough have multiple, complex problems that often involve health and mental health issues, alcohol and substance abuse. This means that the needs of many rough sleepers go much further than a bed to sleep in - homelessness is often the result of other, underlying problems.
The council has long track record of working to address rough sleeping issues including working with a range of organisations and providing funding to every major homelessness charity in Cambridge to supply 500 supported beds for single homeless people. This includes a project currently offering 15 easy-access beds over the winter.
Earlier this year, councillors approved grants worth more than £720k for homelessness organisations in 2017-18. Organisations set to benefit, subject to the council’s overall budget being agreed in February, are:
- Cambridge Cyrenians (£13,094) which provides services to homeless people in need of support
- Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau (£32,557) which works to provide independent specialist housing advice
- Wintercomfort (£91,628) for its five year learning and development service for single homeless or formerly homeless people
- Cambridge Women’s Aid (£46,446) which offers an outreach service for women and children fleeing domestic violence
- Jimmy’s Cambridge (£53,294) for its assessment centre for rough sleepers, plus a further £25,658 towards severe weather emergency provision for rough sleepers
- Centre 33 (£31,181) for its advice and advocacy service for young people threatened with homelessness
- Change, Grow, Live (£178,500) for street outreach services to support rough sleepers to come off the streets and get into accommodation. This service is jointly commissioned with the county council which also provides some funding.
Other groups set to get funding include: YMCA, CHS Group, Riverside English Churches Housing Group and the county council for work on excluded adults and tackling alcohol abuse.
The council also makes up to 30 council or housing association tenancies exclusively available to people who have been sleeping rough each year. This is set to increase to 40 in 2017-18.
Evidence suggests that Cambridge attracts a significant number of homeless people from elsewhere in the region due to the good homeless services available.
In response to this, the council launched Cambridge Street Aid campaign in November to encourage residents and visitors to donate to a new charitable fund, rather than give cash directly to people asking for money on streets in the city centre.
Cambridge Street Aid is a fund managed by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation and supported by the council, Jimmy’s Cambridge, Cambridge Cyrenians, Cambridge Churches Homelessness Project, Cambridge BID and CAMBAC (Cambridge Businesses against Crime).
Every penny of the money donated to the fund will go directly to increasing provision for those most in need and homeless in Cambridge. The new fund will give grants of up to £750 to help vulnerable people on the streets get the support, accommodation and employment they need to turn a corner in their life.
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