Cookies and Privacy

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer

Some of these cookies are necessary to make the site work. We’d also like to use optional cookies to help improve your experience on the site. You can manage your optional cookie preferences below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences. Your preferences can be changed at any time.

For further details, see our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy

I Accept I Do Not Accept

Essential

Essential cookies enable core functionality such as page navigation and access to secure areas. The website cannot function properly without these cookies; they can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences. Third party functions such as Google Search and Analytics will not be enabled.

Performance

Opt-in to performance settings

Performance settings enable you to use the Google Search engine on our website and help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage (for example, which of our pages are most frequently visited).

Save and Close

Press Release

3 November 2022

Fareham Borough Council Homeless Help

Fareham Borough Council is pleased to present a raft of services available to support homeless people in the Borough, following the launch of its crowdfunding scheme trial.

Around 1,600 people approach the Council for housing assistance each year, and around half of these are owed a duty by the Council to prevent or relieve their homelessness. The main causes of homelessness in the Borough is the ending of a private rented tenancy, followed by family or friends no longer being willing to accommodate individuals.

A crowdfunding trial scheme has been set up with online platform Beam and aims to support 10 homeless people for a year. Each individual will be referred to the scheme through the Councils' housing teams, given a caseworker to match them with employers, and help them with job interview skills and applications. The crowdfunding element will not only pay for the caseworker support, but will also cover the individual’s expenses associated with finding employment and housing, such as training, travel, and rent deposits.

This scheme is the latest in a long line of homeless support provided by Fareham Borough Council. It has recently converted or refurbished a number of properties throughout the Borough to provide homes for the homeless, including a large property providing nine rooms for households in emergency situations and five self-contained studio flats for former rough sleepers.

It has also, not only recruited a mental health outreach practitioner using funding made available from the Government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative, but is also working with Gosport Borough Council to provide a free Family Mediation Service aimed at supporting young adults at risk of homelessness.

Councillor Connie Hockley, executive member for housing, said: "We are committed to helping rough sleepers throughout the Borough, but also to preventing those at risk from becoming homeless in the first place. Prevention is always the best course of action, and I am very proud of the wide range of services we provide to prevent anyone feeling as though they have no option but to sleep rough. I encourage anyone who is homeless or threatened with homelessness to contact us without delay"

You can find more on the Council’s work to prevent homelessness here: www.fareham.gov.uk/housing/homelessness/intro.aspx

ENDS