Warwickshire County Council promises £650,000 to combat homelessness

With weather warnings and a viral Facebook post, the issue of homelessness has been brought to the front of public attention once again, with Warwickshire County Council promising to pledge £650,000 to combat the issue.

Plans are also being made by Warwickshire County Council to establish a two-year programme based on strategic planning to tackle the issue of homelessness at the stage of prevention, as explained toThe Boar by County Councillor Les Caborn.

Steph Atkin, a 52-year-old woman from Leamington wrote a lengthy post condemning the current provisions in place to aid the homeless, especially during the winter months, after talking to a homeless man, whom she named ‘Steve’ to protect his identity. The post was published on February 8 and quickly turned viral, gaining over 3000 likes and an equal number of shares on Facebook.

After learning about the current provisions for the homelessness in the local area, Steph Atkin visited the LWS (Leamington Winter Support), a shelter set up by two former Warwick medical students, where she learnt the charity needed to raise £60,000 themselves to move into a new building in Packington Place. This follows a series of appeals from the owner of their current location to have the building converted into student flats.

Support for the post led to an extra £6,000 being raised on the LWS JustGiving page, just 48 hours after the post was published.

Support for the post led to an extra £6,000 being raised on the LWS JustGiving page, just 48 hours after the post was published.

Following Steph Atkin’s post, last month the Warwick District Council (WDC) agreed to cover the costs of the refurbishment in the 2018/19 budget following an approval process. The council also announced they will be working in cooperation with LWS to ensure their requirements are met for the new building.

There will also be a concerted effort to ensure the new facility will be operational long before their current premises are shut down.

Warwickshire County Council has recently approved funding of approximately £650,000. It is hoped this will help to combat existing homelessness and to prevent future individuals from turning to sleeping rough on the streets.

The Council told The Boar of their provisions for the area’s homeless during severe weather. Last year, the District Council approved emergency accommodation to be given to rough sleepers every night the temperature is predicted to zero or below.

The Council express that effort is made to work in tandem with voluntary organisations like the Leamington Night Shelter which is open on Wednesday and Sunday nights in Radford Road Methodist Church Hall.

Supporting the move of the LWS is part of a larger effort in the Warwick District to increase support to rough sleepers which will be available on a wider scale than it currently is.

What does the Councillor Les Caborn have to say?

Local councillor Les Caborn (also ex-District councillor) has confirmed that efforts are also being made in terms of a new two-year project within Warwickshire County Council, currently £150,000 worth of funding.

Councillor Caborn also told The Boar that the project is underway to work with borough district colleagues as housing authority, and partners including mental health and drugs and alcohol to map the causes of homelessness in the local area.

“It’s not just about dealing with the visual side of this, as it is to many people, but to look at the causes at to why people arrive in that situation and what collectively we can do.

“We want at the end of this to have a sustainable position to help prevent homelessness and have a good knowledge as to why people are homeless.”

While the emphasis of the project is on strategic analysis, Emily Fernandez, lead officer working with Councillor Cabron, was keen to emphasise that the funding provided by the council will also be seen put to use practically on the ground level that will support rough-sleepers.

While the council envisions “a county-wide partnership where it is part of everybody’s day job to assist with homelessness across the county” by the end of the two year plan, Councillor Caborn emphasised that the first stage now is to map the causes of homelessness across the county, ensuring the figures they have are correct and trying to take into account the “hidden homeless”.

It’s not just about dealing with the visual side of this, as it is to many people, but to look at the causes at to why people arrive in that situation and what collectively we can do.

— Les Caborn

Councillor Caborn also suggested that, despite the fact the County Council is not directly responsible for the homeless, it wants to pull together with the District and County councils in order to make an effective difference.

Fernandez also noted that, although the project is still in its early stages, the council are working with Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust and the clinical commissioning group.

However, Fernandez suggested that some housing associates on the council have been “looking to set up a strategic county-wide group to focus on rough-sleeping and homelessness”, as well as the funding the council has just received.

When asked about potential challenges the council could face in their two year plan, Les suggested that the preliminary work carried about by Emily and her team has been “very encouraging”, and that the “willingness” of the partnerships to work together to solve the issues at hand.

Finally, when questioned on how best students and the public could get involved to help the issue, Les was enthusiastic at the idea of communication with the council to make progression as effective as possible.

“We’d love to talk to you [the students]. You’re in some ways certainly nearer to the ground than I am, and give information on the homeless people that you’ve seen and to get from them why they’ve arrived from their journey to where they are now.”

We’d love to talk to you [the students]. You’re in some ways certainly nearer to the ground than I am, and give information on the homeless people that you’ve seen and to get from them why they’ve arrived from their journey to where they are now.

— Les Caborn

“We want the project to give us new knowledge so that by the end of the two years we can find something that we can successfully replicate across the county.”

One concern voiced by students compared Warwick District’s new office with the fact that hostels for the homeless over the previous two years have been closed down, together with the fact that the money being put into new affordable housing.

When approached for comment on this subject, Les commented: “I do not see how you can object to a project that saves the taxpayer over £300,000 a year. It relies on cost-efficient for an authority combined with some housing combined with a new car park.

“The office regenerates part of Leamington, and leaves a legacy that, whatever the position of local councils in the future, there is a standard office space for anybody and everybody, or that any business could rent or buy.”

The council will be looking to publish an action plan within the next four or five months.