- The City Council Oxford made sure that the rough sleepers don’t have to go back to the streets next year after the pandemic.
- They have secured a lease to Canterbury House and extension of rent to YHA’s youth hostel to provide accommodation for the homeless until 2021.
- This interim housing will also serve as a bridge toward sustainable housing in the near future.
The homeless people who have been housed in hotels and student accommodations amidst pandemic, do not have to worry about going back to the streets next year because the City Council Oxford has secured 124 interim housing for them.
Last week, the officials made an announcement about their arrangement with A2Dominion to have its Canterbury House, rented until July 2021. The lease on the nonprofit YHA’s youth hostel as well was extended until March 2021.
It can be remembered that the government issued an ‘everyone inside’ order and provided emergency shelters to all rough sleepers because they are vulnerable outside. With that initiative, there has been no recorded confirmed case of COVID-19 among the homeless people housed in Oxford.
With the help of theMinistry of Housing, the Local Government Units, and the Communities, the council has provided temporary accommodations funded from the announced £105 million last month.
“The lockdown period gave us a unique opportunity to engage with people in emergency accommodation. For many of them, the certainty of a safe bed gave the bit of stability they needed to start having conversations about leaving the streets behind for good. We’ve already helped 76 people to move on into more sustainable housing, and this is something we want to keep doing,” said Councillor Mike Rowley on July 30.
The YHA and the Canterbury House have already provided a total of 118 accommodations — and so far, the other 6 rooms intended to serve as quarantine facilities for those who would show symptoms rented from University College a block away, have not been used, fortunately.
What’s more amazing about these interim housing is that it serves as a bridge toward sustainable housing after the pandemic.
Over the past four months, there have been a total of 203 people housed in Oxford — 73 of them have received support into more permanent housing. Most of them have been homeless for a long time and somehow, this pandemic expedited their dreams to be off the streets for good.
“We now have a real opportunity to ensure that as many people as possible do not return to a life on the streets. Nationally, we are delivering 6,000 longer-term, safe homes for former rough sleepers. Together with our Rough Sleeping Initiative this amounts to over £500m funding to help break the cycle of homelessness and end rough sleeping for good,” Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Luke Hall MP, said.
Source: Good News Network
