Department Of Health Invites Housing Bids for £55 Million Homeless Fund

Homeless people are to benefit from a new £55 million fund to upgrade existing accommodation and provide new housing. The fund will be used over the next two years - with £25 million available for accommodation outside London and £30 million in London. The money will be used for two types of projects:

• The Homeless Change project will provide upgraded hostel accommodation to improve physical and mental health outcomes for rough sleepers and to help reduce A&E attendances
• The Platform for Life project will create new low-rent shared accommodation for young people who want to work, but are struggling to hold down a job or attend college because of a lack of stable housing

Find more information on the HCA website.

Sheltered Housing and Hotels to Be Converted For Homeless Youths

Sheltered housing schemes and disused hostels are to be converted into accommodation for young homeless people as part of a new £41.5m scheme to be funded by the Department of Health (DoH). The programme, which is made up of £40m from the DoH and £1.5m from the CLG, will be split between two projects. Part will go to the Platform for Life programme, which will award capital funding to housing associations, councils and private sector developers that bid to convert unsuitable sheltered housing, commercial premises such as disused hotels, or family hostels into homelessness accommodation. The second share of the £41.5m will go to a new round of the Homelessness Change hostel upgrade scheme and will focus on improving health outcomes. There is no fixed split of the shared £41.5m fund, so bids will be considered on their individual merits. Allocations must be spent by March 2016. Read more on Inside Housing.