The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today secured £38million from the Government’s Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP) to tackle rough sleeping in the capital.
City Hall will allocate this funding to London councils and housing associations to deliver new and improved affordable homes for people sleeping rough in the capital, in addition to boosting specialist mental health and substance misuse services.
Notting Hill Genesis and the London Boroughs of Camden and Westminster will receive funding to expand their existing Housing First services, providing 55 new and improved affordable homes through a ‘purchase and repair’ model. The expanded service will provide targeted support for up to 1,000 people, including young adults with multiple disadvantages.
The City of Westminster will receive support to refurbish a ten-bedroom building to be used as a post-treatment centre. The service will provide 24/7 specialist support to former rough sleepers with a history of substance abuse, helping to prepare them for independent living so they are ready to move onto more settled accommodation in six to nine months.
The London Borough of Lewisham will receive £1.6million to expand their existing Housing First service, providing additional affordable homes and intensive support for former rough sleepers.
On this new funding, Sadiq Khan said, “I have quadrupled London’s rough sleeping budget since being elected, helping more than 16,000 people off the streets since 2016. I’m proud that hundreds of the most vulnerable Londoners will be able to access safe, warm, supported housing through our funding allocations to the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme.
“This new £38million investment will make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable Londoners and build on our strong track record at City Hall of delivering homes and support in the capital to end rough sleeping for good.
“However, with rough sleeping rising across the country, including in London, it remains essential for Ministers to step up and provide funding for the social and genuinely affordable homes at the scale our city requires, and to patch up our social security safety net caused by short-sighted spending cuts since 2010 – helping to build a better, safer, fairer London for all.”
In response to the capital’s worsening crisis in rough sleeping, Sadiq has delivered record funding to homelessness charities and service providers across the capital, and drastically increased City Hall’s rough sleeping budget. At £36.3million, the budget in 2023/24 is now more than four times the £8.45million a year it was when Sadiq took office in 2016.
However, with the number of people sleeping rough rising nationally, Sadiq continues to urge the Government to give London the funding it needs to carry on delivering more genuinely affordable homes, starting with a £2.2billion boost to safeguard supply in the capital and £4.9billion in the longer-term.
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