Council will do more to help rough sleepers and homeless in Warwick district

More will be done to help homeless people and rough sleepers in the Warwick '¨district on the coldest nights of the winter.
Rough SleeperRough Sleeper
Rough Sleeper

Warwick District Council’s Executive agreed this week to offer overnight accommodation to rough sleepers on every night that the temperature is predicted to drop below zero over the winter.

Previous council protocol was to provide accommodation if the temperature was predicted to drop below zero on three consecutive nights.

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Last month, Labour councillor Kristie Naimo put forward a motion suggesting that the authority improve its provision for rough sleepers.

She said: “‘This is the second time we have proposed an improvement to this service. We suggested the change last winter just after more than 100 people attended the Helping Hands winter sleep out. But at that time this did not find favour with the administration.

“We are pleased to see that at last the council is listening and even more pleased that it will be reviewing the service that is out there in terms of the voluntary night shelter provision with a view to improving it and encouraging more collaborative working.

“We know that people in Warwick District care about homelessness - we have several night shelters as well as organisations who offer homelessness support in Leamington.”

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Council leader Cllr Andrew Mobbs (Con, Park Hill) said that the council would now be focused on setting out proposals to help people to “live and work in the district as active members of the community” as part of a “longer term” solution.

Cllr Peter Phillips (Con, Budbrooke), portfolio holder for housing services, also said: “Tackling homelessness is a high priority for the council and I welcome that the Executive has approved this initiative to expand our help for the most vulnerable people.

“It is the first step in a much wider review of homelessness prevention that we have asked officers to carry out over the coming months.”