Rough sleepers in Welwyn Hatfield will once again be provided with accommodation, as the council reinstates the 'Everyone In' scheme adopted during the first coronavirus lockdown.
In the first lockdown in March last year, the government gave councils two days' notice to house all the homeless for the lockdown, but this has not be repeated by the government for the following lockdowns.
However, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has decided to house the homeless anyhow.
READ MORE: What is happening to the homeless in Welwyn Hatfield during this lockdown?
A spokesperson for the council said: "At the moment the numbers are not as high as we experienced in March, however it is only a few days since the lockdown was announced by the Prime Minister last Monday.
"We are currently accommodating eight individuals in three hotels and are working to find sustainable accommodation outcomes for them.
"Our Rough Sleeper Service is now able to provide increased assistance, and accommodation is available to our partner, Resolve, that manages this service."
The Rough Sleeper Service is comprised of three elements:
Outreach – this part responds to reports of rough sleepers made by the public from partner organisations. The reports provide location details and the team goes to approach the reported rough sleeper to start the engagement process. Their goal is to get the individuals off the streets and into accommodation if it is needed (some reports are of people begging that might not be homeless).
Night Shelter – this part is the accommodation and where the rough sleepers go to stay whilst the Navigators work with them and determine how to help.
Navigators – these are the caseworkers who get involved in the details of the case; the person’s background, the causes of homelessness, the eligibility for services etc, and they work to plug the gaps or assist in whatever is needed to get some stability.
The overall aim of the process is to move people from a life on the streets to settled, stable, suitable accommodation, whatever form that might take. The council says the service has been designed in a way that takes into consideration each person’s unique circumstances and background, acknowledging that moving from the streets to a flat in one move often isn’t realistic.
READ MORE: What happened to the homeless people in Welwyn Hatfield who were housed during lockdown?
As with previous lockdowns, Resolve is continuing to support vulnerable people, albeit they have had to find alternate ways of working.
Sarah Jamieson, senior project manager at Resolve, said: "We are working remotely for some aspects of our work, for example, we can do an assessment by phone instead of face to face, and our psychosocial groups are continuing but largely remotely.
"However, some elements of our work have to be done in person, while observing all COVID safety guidelines.
"We are continuing to find housing solutions for homeless people, in conjunction with WHBC although the process has changed slightly as we now have to consider a 10 day isolation period for new clients."
Resolve CEO Joe Heeney said: "We continue to see numbers of people coming to ReStart [Resolve’s Homeless and rough sleeper Project] homeless and sleeping rough for a range of reasons.
"Due to COVID we are working hard, in close partnership with WHBC, to ensure that no-one is street homeless or sleeping rough within the borough and to ensure that as quickly as possible, people who are sleeping rough are provided with crisis accommodation so they are no longer on the streets.
"We have in place all the safety measures we can, protecting our staff with PPE and having safety measures and a comprehensive Risk Assessment and Risk Management Policy and Procedures in place to protect both our staff and the people we are working with.
"Our team continues to answer reports of people who are sleeping rough and/or street homeless in the borough and we are totally committed to ensuring that no-one is sleeping rough within the borough despite the difficulties we all face, due to the restrictions and issues that this latest lockdown are presenting us all with."
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