£3.8 million homelessness fund for Manchester

Greater Manchester will receive almost £3.8 million to develop a new city region-wide approach to prevent homelessness and reduce rough sleeping.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, who announced the funding, said that it would be used to develop new services and resources, across all 10 Manchester boroughs, and encourage collaboration with clear systems in place to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping from happening in the first place.

Javid said: “One person living on the street or without a home to call their own is too many. This package supports this government’s aims to transform the way we prevent homelessness and rough sleeping. Greater Manchester has always been at the forefront of devolution and this is a landmark moment – the first devolved homelessness package. I’m confident that the proposed plan will reach the needs of the city’s most vulnerable people and set a precedent for what other ambitious city regions can do.”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “We very much welcome this announcement by the government. This extra help is well-timed, much-needed and good news for Greater Manchester. It is a recognition of the innovative work underway here to help people sleeping rough, bringing together our public, private and voluntary sectors in a ground-breaking partnership. This support from the government will help us go further and faster in achieving our goal of ending rough sleeping in Greater Manchester by 2020.”