3,000 people left without a permanent home in Wolverhampton
Almost 3,000 people in Wolverhampton have been without a permanent home this year. The council is being given a quarter of a million pound grant from the Government to tackle the problem.
The findings were revealed as part of a report into the issue, which hopes to reduce the number of homeless people and rough sleepers.
The report showed that on June 30 this year, 2,851 presented themselves to the local authority as homeless in 2016-17, an increase from 2,667 in 2015-16.
Now the council is to provide a free service that offers housing advice and assistance via Wolverhampton Homes from December, taking over from the current service offered by the council's Housing Options department.
This is part of the Government's Homeless Reduction Bill, which is due to be brought in from April next year.
The bill will demand that the council assess whether someone is at risk of being made homeless 56 days before losing their home rather than just 28 days prior.
According to the report: "For Wolverhampton this will mean an estimated increase of over 500 cases each year at a potential cost of £750,000, based on the average cost of an application being £1,500.
"The grant received by the Local Authority to undertake this work will be in the region of £250,000, therefore will require a remodel of services to assist with the increasing demand."
Councillor Wendy Thompson, head of the Conservative group at the council, said: "It is a staggering amount of people that are without a permanent home.
"Of course, having the government grant is useful, but we also need to look at issues such as unemployment, alcohol misuse and other social factors that can lead to someone becoming homeless and look to address these as part of the wider picture."
