DORSET Council has been awarded more than £472,000 government funding to help tackle rough sleeping.

The money will be used to extend work, currently undertaken in Weymouth and Portland, across the county – including into more rural areas.

Cllr Graham Carr-Jones, portfolio holder for housing at Dorset Council, said: “This is great news for Dorset.

"We’re committed to reducing the number of rough sleepers in our county and to provide support to rough sleepers who have been re-housed to help them remain in accommodation.

"The funding will continue our existing partnership work and provides an important opportunity to extend this work across the rural areas of Dorset.”

The £472,470 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) grant follows a bid by Dorset Council’s housing team.

Authority officials worked on the bid with The Lantern, Julian House, The Bus Shelter and Citizens Advice.

Despite an overall reduction in rough sleeping in the Dorset Council area, from 35 in 2018 to 18 in 2019, some areas of the county have seen increases.

These figures also have no bearing on the situation within the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council area.

In North Dorset numbers have increased from one to four rough sleepers.

The money will enable Julian House and The Lantern to work across the Dorset Council area, to help get people off the streets and into accommodation and consolidate their work in Weymouth.

Helen Bedser, chief executive of Julian House, said: “Over the past two years, working in close cooperation with organisations like The Lantern Trust, we have been able to make some real progress around rough sleeper numbers and, more importantly create positive outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of society.

“News of this increased funding is fantastic. Not only will it allow us to build on that work, but it will also broaden it out to address the less visible aspects of homelessness such as in rural communities.

"Long experience has shown that getting someone off the streets is just the start of their pathway away from homelessness. Tailored support when they move into accommodation helps to ensure that they don’t fail and finish up back in a very vulnerable dangerous existence."