Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced details of £ 16million funding for pilot projects to provide temporary accommodation with additional care and support to the homeless.
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Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced details of £ 16million funding for pilot projects to provide temporary accommodation with additional care and support to homeless people #UKhousing
The Department of Health and Social Affairs (DHSC) said the goal was to “end the cycle of people leaving hospital to return to the streets and then be quickly readmitted to hospital.”
It targets street sleepers recently released from hospital care.
Ministers hope the program can help reduce pressure on the NHS while finding suitable housing for those in need as the government strives to deliver on its pledge to end deadlocked sleep by 2024 .
Homeless hospitalized patients are more than twice as likely to be readmitted to hospital in an emergency, the DHSC said.
A study of nearly 3,000 homeless patients discharged from hospitals after emergency admission between 2013 and 2016 found that nearly 2,000 were readmitted in less than a year.
Funding has already been allocated to pilot projects in 17 different regions across England, focusing on the provision of housing, employment and drug withdrawal services.
According to the Office for National Statistics, rough sleepers die 30 years younger than the general population on average, while the estimated number of deaths each year has increased by 50% in less than a decade.
Mr Javid said: ‘No one should ever have to sleep on the streets – extra support will allow those who do not have a home to get the help they need, to recover faster and to put on end of hospital readmission cycle.
âThis government has proven its commitment to helping homeless people throughout this pandemic, by providing them with temporary accommodation and priority vaccines.
âThese pilot programs will show how more effective care can be when integrated and the best examples will be put forward to help tackle homelessness across the country.
The £ 16million is part of a £ 200million profit sharing fund approved by the Treasury at the end of 2019.
Care Minister Gillian Keegan said the pilots “are breaking the link between homelessness and multiple repeat hospitalizations.”
The government has committed over £ 750million to reduce homelessness and rough sleep this year.
This week at the Conservative Party conference former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was “a stain” on the party’s record that sleeping on the streets “got so much higher” afterwards. coming to power in 2010.
He called for greater collaboration between departments to reach the 2024 target.
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