Sheffield Council secures £4 million to help house homeless

The money was provided from the government’s local authority housing scheme and will support people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or who have resettled in Sheffield under the Afghan and Ukrainian schemes.

The funding was formally accepted in an extraordinary meeting of the strategy and resources committee yesterday.

In a report prepared for the meeting, council officers said 633 people had arrived in Sheffield via the Homes for Ukraine scheme so far but only a third of cases had moved on from their initial sponsor. There are also several Afghan families living in bridging hotels. This funding will help them move on to more permanent accommodation.

In the meeting, Janet Sharpe, director of housing, said: “This is really good news for the city.

“We have been very fortunate in the government allocating additional funding for Sheffield which means we can buy more homes and that reduces pressure on our homeless services in particular…it gives us much more flexibility and also it reflects that we are able to acquire more homes at a reasonable cost compared to other parts of the country.”

Councillor Douglas Johnson, chair of the housing policy committee, added: “It is really encouraging to see the council taking opportunities to draw in new funding to secure more homes which will be affordable to rent at a time of rising private rents and with owner occupation simply unaffordable for thousands in our city. The money is not just for purchase of existing housing but also for improving them to modern standards.

“These new homes will add to those that are already planned under the council’s stock increase programme. With the cost of building new properties rising due to inflationary pressure in the construction industry, it makes sense to buy and improve existing housing when it is available. In difficult financial times, we need to be on the ball and awake to any opportunities to draw in funding to improve housing and make it affordable to those on low incomes.”