City Council plans to provide 10 more empty houses to Progressive Lifestyle Solutions to develop new supported accommodation for those at risk of becoming homeless.
It comes as Public Health England release figures showing Liverpool is the best English City for statutory homelessness, alongside Leicester.
Public Health England’s figures show that Liverpool is ‘significantly above the English average’ for statutory homelessness, leading the way when compared with other cities such as the Core Cities group, which includes places like Manchester and Birmingham.
Progressive Lifestyle Solutions, a Not for Profit CIC based in North Liverpool, works with service users to help assist and progress them towards independent living. PLS currently has capacity to help 45 people at risk of homelessness, using private rented accommodation, but the extra properties from Liverpool City Council will enable the organisation to work with many more. The City Council have already provided one property which is currently being refurbished.
Mayor Joe Anderson said: “Liverpool’s record of tackling homelessness is very strong, because we pride ourselves on being innovative with initiatives like “no second night out” with the Whitechapel centre and working with local organisations like Progressive Lifestyle Solutions.
PLS will refurbish these properties, involving their service users, and then work closely to help them grow and develop the skills necessary to live independently. We all know homelessness is a complex issue, and these figures show that no other city is better than Liverpool at helping this vulnerable group in our community.”
Paul Martin, Chief Executive of PLS added: “As an organisation that works to tackle poverty and homelessness in Liverpool, we have been delighted with the support we have received from Mayor Joe Anderson, Ann O’Byrne and the rest of the team at Liverpool City Council. We believe that we are offering a service that will continue to ensure that even more vulnerable individuals across the city will have a realistic chance of rebuilding their lives, whilst developing the skills, tools and knowledge to make this sustainable.”
