City of Wolverhampton Council is to build on strong partnership work that has driven rough sleeper numbers down to one of the lowest levels ever in the city.

Rough sleeping figures are often in single digits on any one night in Wolverhampton – lower than many other parts of the country.

Anyone found sleeping outside in the city is always offered long-term safe, suitable and sustainable accommodation.

Under a new five-year Homelessness Prevention strategy, the council and its partners will continue to operate with the clear message that nobody needs to sleep on the streets or go hungry.

The strategy, approved by the council’s cabinet, highlights the importance of timely and accurate information, advice and assistance at an early stage to alleviate homelessness.

It also focuses on improving affordability and sustainment of tenancies in the private rented sector, alongside ensuring the provision of safe temporary places of shelter and long term suitable and affordable accommodation offers through City Housing.

Councillor Steve Evans, City of Wolverhampton Council deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, said: “The root causes of homelessness are often connected to complex circumstances.

“No single organisation can tackle homelessness alone and Wolverhampton has already seen excellent outcomes so far from its partnership work and this will continue.

“In cases where someone is identified as sleeping rough in Wolverhampton, they will always be offered accommodation and support.

“Sometimes people refuse help or support for various reasons, but we will still work with anyone who is homeless through outreach support.”

The council’s partnership work has led to many recent achievements:

• The opening of Peter Bilson House, which provides 34 units of accommodation, including 6 accessible apartments, offering bespoke, multi-agency support for vulnerable people.
• 52 people who were, or who have a history of rough sleeping housed through the Housing First Model.
• The number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2023 in Wolverhampton was six, a reduction of 68% since autumn 2018.
• The council’s migration team sourced more than 100 properties in the private sector to prevent homelessness to those households granted refugee status.
• The emergence of ‘Call us First’ - a preventative and targeted approach, which provides support and early intervention to landlords and tenants to reduce the likelihood of homelessness and keep people in their homes.

Seen someone sleeping rough? Connect them with support by making a referral through StreetLink - Connecting people sleeping rough to local services (thestreetlink.org.uk)

Donate to Home - Alternative Giving CIO (wolverhamptonchange.co.uk) to support agencies helping the homeless

There are 16 donation points at shops and businesses around the city and two ‘Tap to Donate’ points close to the city centre’s bus station and at Wolverhampton train station.

For information about support services for homeless people see Street Support Wolverhampton - Working together to tackle homelessness in Wolverhampton

Further information can also be found at Homelessness | City Of Wolverhampton Council