Fund aims to get homeless off the streets

A scheme pioneered in London called No Second Night Out is being rolled out across England from today.

£20m will be made available to homeless charities to help them put in place services to ensure that new rough sleepers gets rapid help so they don't spend a second night out.

Charities will be able to apply for grants of up £200,000 to invest in new ways of preventing and tackling rough sleeping.

Priority will be given to areas that are experiencing high levels of homelessness. Administered by Homeless Link, the umbrella body for homelessness charities, and supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Fund has given out 62 grants worth £11.6m since it first launched in 2011.

The number of people sleeping out on any one night is estimated to have increased by 23% last year.

Sharon Allen, Chair of the Fund's Grants Panel said:

"With last week's Government figures showing that homelessness continues to rise, it's more important than ever that we prevent people from ending up on our streets.

"We want to help communities that have been hardest hit by homelessness. If you're a charity which has a new idea when it comes to tackling rough sleeping or you want to join the growing number of areas to adopt No Second Night Out, we want to hear from you."

Homelessness services that are at risk of closure will also be able to apply for grant of up to £25,000 to help them find ways of securing their futures.