Huge Cash Injection To Help Tackle Liverpool Homelessness Crisis
Millions in government support will be accepted by the combined authority, reports the Liverpool Echo.
More than £4m is to be invested across the Liverpool City Region to tackle the continuing pressures around homelessness throughout its six boroughs. In Liverpool alone, there were concerns that without mitigation more than £10m could be added to the city’s budget to deal with rough sleeping. The trend of rough sleeping has ticked upward throughout 2024 when compared to the same period last year. The average number of people seen each night rough sleeping between April and September 2024 was 30, an increase on the average of 22 people seen per night over the same period in 2023 in the city.
Now, after negotiations with the UK government, more than £4m in funding will be put towards supporting those without permanent accommodation. Members of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) are to be asked to approve the cash injection when they meet next week at Mann Island. According to documents released ahead of the authority’s session on April 11, the LCRCA secured capital funding through the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme (RSAP) fund to invest in a social investment company: Resonance, to purchase and renovate homes for the purpose of housing rough sleepers across the region. Alongside this, the LCRCA also invested in the Resonance fund for purchasing one-bed properties urgently needed for homelessness provision, with further government funding available to deliver support to the individuals accommodated.
The report set out how due to challenges in purchasing a sufficient number of one-bedroom properties through the Resonance model, in December 2024 government officials approved the purchasing of 2-3 bedroom properties through the scheme, which will be allocated to families in temporary accommodation across the city region. Resonance will continue working to purchase one-bedroom properties across the Liverpool city region, which will be allocated to rough sleepers.
To fund the support provision for these properties, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have announced the LCRCA has been awarded revenue funding for up to £638,467 for support for single homeless tenants in one-bed RSAP properties. In 2025-26, MHCLG have merged the Accommodation for Ex-Offender (AFEO) services and Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI) – which previously encompassed Housing First, the Trailblazers Early Intervention & Prevention service, city region Assertive Outreach service, and Homelessness Social Worker provision – into the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPARG).
RSAP funding has been secured for 12 months to continue providing support for single rough sleepers housed until March 2026. For those families allocated properties, work will need to be done with local authority partners to ensure that there are support agencies in place to support families that require it. Funding will total £4.1m, with £2.6m put through the Housing First programme directly delivered by the combined authority. An additional £850,000 will come through the commissioned homelessness service.
