Liverpool Rough Sleeping Hub To Operate Through Summer Months
The service, operated by the Whitechapel Centre, has usually only been used during winter, reports the Liverpool Echo.
A Liverpool rough sleeping hub is to reopen during the spring and summer months to support those facing homelessness. Throughout winter, in partnership with the Whitechapel Centre, Liverpool Council provides a temporary centre for those seeking accommodation. Each year in preparation for winter, the local authority works with partners to ensure there is a range of additional solutions in place during the worst of the winter, including ‘sit-up’ spaces and block-booked hotel rooms. All this provision is aligned to the council’s severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP) response.
Now, a planning application has been submitted to the city’s planning department for a change of use for the existing building near to the city centre between April and July. The documents attached to the application describe the need for the centre to open once more as a “short-term, emergency response to the current housing crisis.” Liverpool’s trend of rough sleeping ticked upward throughout 2024 when compared to the same period 12 months earlier. 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.
Subject to approval, the hub would continue to be delivered by The Whitechapel Centre, which is subject to a comprehensive quality and performance management regime. The Whitechapel Centre is a third sector charitable organisation with significant experience of working with vulnerable individuals who have a “street-based lifestyle” such as people rough sleeping. A planning statement said the hub would be open every night during the four-month period in order to safeguard the health and wellbeing of people who would otherwise sleep rough. The centre will operate until July 31.
Services would be provided from 8pm to 8am daily, with staff onsite outside of those hours to aid opening, closure and cleaning of the facility. Capacity would be limited to 30 people only. The planning statement added: “The facility will be restricted to people sleeping rough only. This means access will be controlled and coordinated via the Outreach Team i.e. people seen by the Outreach Team bedded down sleeping. No direct access will be permitted. “Anyone who has accommodation will not be allowed to access the service.” People assessed as sleeping rough will be permitted to stay overnight in a sit-up style provision until accommodation, or another solution is sourced.
