MP welcomes new funding to help city homeless
A Black Country MP has welcomed extra funding to deliver more dedicated support to people at risk of homelessness in a city.
Wolverhampton South West MP Stuart Anderson has welcomed the funding, which will see the city benefit from a range of grants worth over £1 million to deliver locally designed interventions that support those who are currently sleeping rough or are at risk of becoming homeless.
In his submission to the Spending Review, Mr Anderson called on the Government to double down on efforts to end rough sleeping.
He said he was pleased when the Government announced its commitment to invest £2 billion over the next three years.
He said: “We are on a mission in this Parliament to end rough sleeping for good.
"I welcome this extra funding for Wolverhampton, which underscores our ongoing commitment to ensuring that people at risk of homelessness get the help they need as quickly as possible and that those who are sleeping rough are helped into safer accommodation.
"It will also provide a funding boost to our Community Vaccine Champions, who have provided valuable advice and support to the most vulnerable in our community."
The funding includes a Homelessness Prevention Grant of £886,353 to help people experiencing homelessness find a new home, level up access to support for people who are facing unexpected evictions, and secure temporary accommodation where needed.
The funding follows a top-up grant in October 2021 when Wolverhampton received £185,848 to help vulnerable households with rent arrears.
Wolverhampton has also been allocated £28,766 to provide victims of domestic abuse with priority need for housing.
In addition, Wolverhampton is receiving a funding boost of £57,861 to better protect rough sleepers from COVID-19 with access to COVID-19 vaccines and safer accommodation.
The Protect and Vaccinate scheme has been launched in light of the new, more transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 to increase vaccine uptake among people who are homeless and sleeping rough and fund emergency accommodation to get more people off the streets.
The city has also been allocated £185,000 for the Community Vaccine Champions programme to tackle disparities in vaccine uptake.
