A PARTNERSHIP between the council and a charity will bring more support to help rough sleepers and homeless couples in Reading.
It is hoped that the scheme will help couples who have experienced homelessness and struggled to stay in long-term accommodation will be helped to find a home together.
It is the first time that a dedicated couple’s service has been run in the town.
And St Mungo’s will expand its outreach service to support people sleeping rough, in a bid to reduce the number of homeless people on the town’s streets.
Both services, run in partnership with the Council, will operate for three years.
Helen Denyer, Regional Director for St Mungo’s, said: “We are really pleased we will be providing these important services, particularly as the cost of living crisis is putting more people in a vulnerable position and at risk of potential homelessness.
“It is especially exciting for us to be running this innovative couple’s Housing First service, alongside support for vulnerable individuals. Our aim is to help people recover from homelessness and find a stable place to live and call home, and it is only right that couples who are suitable for Housing First and want to live together have suitable accommodations available.”
She said that extending its outreach programme would be a positive step towards ending homelessess in the town.
“Our specialist teams are out every day right where they are needed, helping to make every night someone’s last on the streets,” she said.
“The partnership with Reading Council means we can continue doing this for years to come, helping more people move off the streets for good.”
St Mungo’s operates street outreach support as well as supported accommodation, modular homes at Caversham Road and a specialist women’s service, the Nova Project.
Cllr Ellie Emberson, Lead Member for Housing at Reading Borough Council, welcomed the news.
“Reading Council has a proven track record of supporting homelessness residents in the town. We know a real difference can be made with a partnership approach and have effectively worked alongside our charity partner St Mungo’s for a number of years,” she said.
“We’re pleased to extend our ongoing support of homelessness projects in the Borough and specifically, working with St Mungo’s to help support those most in need, as we have done already with initiatives such as the Caversham Road modular homes project which provides 40 former rough sleepers with their own home alongside round the clock support provided by St Mungo’s.”
The expanded Street Population Outreach Team (SPOT) will provide more flexible support and the addition of an ‘in-reach’ function for clients after they have successfully moved away from the streets to prevent recurring episodes of rough sleeping.
There will also be more emphasis on preventing homelessness in the first instance, with tenancy support for vulnerable people and those at risk of losing their home.
The Housing First service will follow the same model that has been successfully implemented in other regions across England, including London, Oxford, Brighton and Bournemouth, which St Mungo’s has been at the forefront of.
Funding for these services has come from the UK Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) as part of the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) funding stream awarded to local councils.
For more about St Mungo’s work, visit: mungos.org
