Greater Manchester has secured several hundred thousand pounds of further funding to boost the ongoing drive to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping across the city-region.
An additional £829,000 has been committed by Government to support Greater Manchester’s existing Social Impact Bond (SIB), a programme to assist the most entrenched rough sleepers with secure accommodation and ongoing targeted support.
The new funding will add to the £1.8 million already secured by the programme and will enable rough sleepers already referred into the SIB to secure a route off the streets.
Since the SIB launched in December 2017 more than 500 people have been referred and retained after initial estimates suggested only 300 would be eligible. Already, 109 previously entrenched rough sleepers have found secure accommodation in the city-region.
Paul Dennett, Greater Manchester Combined Authority portfolio lead for Housing, Homelessness and Infrastructure, said: “This vital new funding is to be welcomed as we have worked hard to make the Social Impact Bond a success. People are engaged, the uptake is high and the retention rates are excellent, demonstrating just how well the scheme is helping people turn their lives around.
“However, there is so much more to do. Across the city-region we are co-ordinating our response to what is a humanitarian and systemic crisis; we are innovating and doing things differently and I restate the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s pledge to end the need for rough sleeping here by 2020.
“Whatever our challenges as a country, we are rich enough to put a roof over every head every night of the week in Greater Manchester.”
