Council to spend £1.8m in bid to help rough sleepers

65 assisted as the number in city increases

- Phil Corrigan Local Democracy Reporter

COUNCIL leaders have approved plans to spend £1.8 million helping rough sleepers in Stoke-on-Trent this year as the number of street homeless in the city continues to rise.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and its partners will continue to provide a raft of services in 2025/26, including night shelters, temporary and move-on accommodation, healthcare and peer mentors.

The schemes will be paid for through a number of Government funding pots, mainly the Rough Sleeper Prevention and Recover Grant, which has replaced several smaller grants.

The existing services have been developed since 2022, when the Government announced that it would be ending rough sleeping for good.

But the report says that despite 'significant investment' by the government over the last three years, the number of rough sleepers has increased, both locally and nationally.

As of the end of April, the rough sleeper outreach service had 65 people on its caseload.

Twenty of these, or 31 per cent, were female, which is double the proportion nationally.