Legal News
Rent option boosts for single homeless people (14 May 2013)
Date: 14/05/2013
A cash boost of up to £1 million was announced by Communities Minister Don Foster yesterday to support single homeless people.
It would help the homeless to find a safe and secure roof in privately rented accommodation.
The homelessness charity Crisis has been allocated up to £ 800,000 fund schemes to set new shared tenancies for single homeless people in privately rented accommodation.
A further £230,000 was announced by the minister, for the charity, to continue its Private Rented Sector Access Programme, which works with local landlords to help vulnerable people find the homes they need in privately rented accommodation.
The minister said that no one should have to face the scary prospect of being homeless and for many particularly younger, single people, renting a room could be an affordable alternative to a flat or house.
He said the government wanted to ensure that option was widely available and to that effect the charity Crisis was provided with a million pound which could be helping hundreds more desperate people into tenancies that suits them and finding a way forward to make rented rooms a reality right across the country.
Crisis has been running the Private Rented Sector Access Scheme for the last 3 years, backed by almost £11 million government funding. The scheme has already helped more than 5,000 people find a home in the private rented sector, and by the end of March 2014, expects to have created as many as 8,000 new tenants.
The minister said young and single vulnerable people would find help from the new £800,000 Sharing Solutions Programme to find a room in shared accommodation they could afford.
Bids would be called for to fund 8 schemes across the country competitive bids which would work with the local landlords to create more rooms for rent in shared accommodation, developing new affordable housing options for younger people who were homeless and have no family commitments.
The minister said the projects will also work with those facing the threat of homelessness, supporting them as they settle in with their new housemates.