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To accept Rough Sleeping Winter Pressures
Funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local
Government (MHCLG) of £42,388 for 2024/25, and to allocate
this funding for the purposes set out below.

On 21st February 2025, MHCLG
notified Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC) that it had allocated
£42,388 funding to CBC with the objective of providing
support for people in housing crisis and prevent homelessness and
rough sleeping. MHCLG highlighted that funding was targeting areas
with pressures resulting from rent arrears.

This funding will also increase our
impact over the winter months in supporting vulnerable households
facing homelessness and those seeking solutions to their
homelessness. It will include a focus on increasing prevention
activities that result in less households being placed into
temporary accommodation and fewer people sleeping rough for the
first time.

As part of the funding criteria, we are
looking to implement the following interventions to achieve the
outcomes:

•      Payment of arrears in
private, social or supported housing where threat of eviction is
resolved

•     Payment of historical arrears to
enable access to social housing or supported housing where arrears
are a barrier to access

The estimated costs of these initiatives
are between £9,000 and £12,000, and this is based on
current research on applicants currently known to CBC’s
Housing Options Team. Actual costs will be
dependent upon households approaching CBC for assistance and cases
will be carefully considered to ensure the use of this funding is
spent wisely.

•     Resources to provide ongoing
support to people when they are accommodated to help them sustain
their tenancy. This could include the provision of home starter
packs to enable rapid rehousing

•     Payment
or provision of goods to enable people to stay living with family
or friends for a longer period until alternative accommodation can
be sourced

The estimated costs of these initiatives
would be between £3,000 and £6,000. However, whilst we
have tried to be as accurate as possible with potential provision
of help in this area this is a new initiative and costs may
fluctuate.

•     Landlord incentives, and payment
of rent in advance or deposits

We would exhaust all other avenues, and
work in conjunction with potential discretionary housing allowance
payments but estimate costs could be in the region of £4,000
to £7,000 if we are able to obtain landlords willing to work
with us.

• Start-up costs to bring existing
surplus accommodation owned by a Registered Provider (P3) for use
as emergency accommodation in Cheltenham, so as to reduce
CBC’s reliance on making emergency Bed & Breakfast
placements outside of our local authority area.

The estimated startup costs of this initiative would be between
£10,000 and £15,000; however actual costs will be
dependent on agreed costs to prepare an
identified property ready for occupation e.g. new furniture,
installation of CCTV linked to another P3 building for
monitoring.

·        
Other activities to support and reduce
homelessness pressures around prevention, reduction in use of
temporary accommodation, and upstream initiatives to prevent future
rough sleeping. This would, in effect, be a contribution towards
existing staffing costs within our Housing Interventions Team. This
team sits within CBC’s Housing Options Service.

The estimated contribution could be as
little as £2,500, depending on the success or otherwise of
our other spend initiatives as set out above. Essentially, CBC will
ensure that all of MHCLG’s grant allocation of £42,388
is committed for spend by the end of March 2025. This means that if
less of the grant funding is spent elsewhere, then more of the
grant will be used to contribute towards these staffing
costs.

It is therefore anticipated that 100% of
this funding allocation will be committed for spend by end of March
2025 and any underspend on our forecasted estimates will go towards
the costs of staffing our Housing Interventions Team to continue
providing support for people in housing crisis and prevent
homelessness and rough sleeping. However, in the even that there is
an underspend, this may need to be returned to MHCLG.