Support don't Deport campaign gains momentum
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New toolkit created to help prevent homelessness
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Clarion works with Hertsmere Borough Council and partners to help tackle homelessness
" />Posted 09.08.21
Homeless Link: Further reading
As at the above date, 112 local authorities and charities have made the pledge to not participate in new Home Office rules around rough sleeping.
The pledge is part of the charity Homeless Link's Support don't Deport campaign, urging local authorities and homelessness charities to not make referrals under new Home Office immigration rules - which make rough sleeping grounds for refusing or cancelling someone's leave to remain.
The pledges represent areas from across England. They include local authorities, which combined represent close to 2.5 million people.
Pledges have also come from many homelessness charities and other organisations who regularly work with people experiencing rough sleeping - such as drug and alcohol treatment providers.
The new rules, which were published in October 2020, were met with widespread opposition from the homelessness sector.
The Home Office published new guidance in April this year to make it clear that these new powers can only be used if 'a person has refused repeated offers of suitable support and engaged in persistent anti-social behaviour'. But Homeless Link is urging organisations to take a stand on the issue, communicating their support for people sleeping rough.
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Posted 05.08.21
The West Midlands Combined Authority: Further reading
A new toolkit has been developed to help a wide range of organisations prevent and relieve homelessness.
The toolkit has been designed to provide practical help to not only specialist organisations and their partners, but also those with no direct link to tackling homelessness.
The Commitment to Collaborate to Prevent and Relieve Homelessness Toolkit has been developed by the West Midlands Combined Authority Homelessness Taskforce in partnership with Birmingham Voluntary Service Council.
It includes information on homelessness, questions to consider, examples of actions to take and blank templates to record progress.
The toolkit has been designed to work through possible changes that could be made to prevent homelessness at the earliest opportunity, even when an issue is not identified as having a link to homelessness.
The above link provides access to view the toolkit.
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Posted 03.08.21
Clarion Housing Group: Further reading
A scheme to help people move off the streets and into longer-term homes will launch this month in Hertsmere, following a successful bid for government funding.
In partnership with Clarion Housing Group, charity One YMCA and Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) - Hertsmere Borough Council has transformed a former under-used hostel at Shenwood Court in Borehamwood into a 24-room accommodation and complex needs support service, which will help vulnerable people who have been sleeping rough or are at risk of doing so.
Funding for the project was secured from a successful £165,000 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's 'Rough Sleeping Initiative' bid.
The government initiative seeks to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, by providing specialist services and ongoing support to those most at risk, as well as a route into settled accommodation.
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