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£650,000 boost to help tackle homelessness in Black Country

Organisation that help homeless people in the Black Country have been given more than £650,000 to get rough sleepers off the streets.

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Walsall Council will get £400,000 and Wolverhampton is in line for £257,000 of the Government funding, which is to be spent on supporting people who sleep rough and need emergency accommodation.

It will also be used to pay for additional specialist staff and new temporary accommodation, including night shelters and hostel spaces.

Across the country 83 areas have been allocated cash, including Birmingham, which is getting around £500,000.

Homelessness is a major issue across the West Midlands, with Birmingham seen as a national blackspot after the number of rough sleepers increased by 60 per cent over the last year, while the region saw more homeless deaths than anywhere else in the country in the five years to 2017.

Walsall Council's Conservative leader, Councillor Mike Bird, welcomed the cash injection, which he said would boost the authority's plans to combat rough sleeping.

“It’s great to see the Government committing to more support in helping vulnerable people in Walsall off the streets and back on their feet.

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“This funding will do just that, providing local authorities with the funding they need to provide the right support so that rough sleepers across the borough can have a roof over the head.”

Walsall Council recently secured £1.3 million from the West Midlands Combined Authority to run the Housing First project, which helps long-term homeless people into housing.

The scheme, which was launched by West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, has already seen around 30 people get into tenancies, with the extra funding allowing the authority to help 88 more people.

And official figures show that the number of rough sleepers across the West Midlands shot up by more than 40 per cent in 2018, the biggest rise in the country.

A total of 420 people were found sleeping rough on the region's streets on a single night in November, up 42 per cent from the same time in 2017 when 295 rough sleepers were found.

Across England the number of rough sleepers fell by two per cent. Ministers have committed £100 million to end rough sleeping by 2027.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said: “No one should ever have to face a night on the streets, and as Conservatives we are committed to ending rough sleeping for good."