DOZENS of homeless people given housing by BCP Council in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak have since secured longer-term living arrangements.

The council secured temporary accommodation for 250 people in partnership with the St Mungo’s outreach team, allowing wider support packages to be put in place.

Its leader, councillor Vikki Slade, said this had included health checks and GP registrations to be arranged with almost a third now having moved into “positive, improved housing”.

Measures were introduced at the start of the virus outbreak in March to identify homeless people living across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Working with St Mungo’s, the council urged people, many of whom had previously declined, to accept support to reduce the risk of them becoming infected.

Most people agreed to accept temporary accommodation arranged by the council, although more than a dozen declined.

Speaking during her weekly Facebook question and answer session on Thursday, Cllr Slade said only five of the 250 people who had been housed had gone back to rough sleeping.

She said she was “incredibly proud” of the work that had been done with 76 people having now moved into longer-term accommodation.

“Each of those 250 people have received basic health checks, where they weren’t registered with a GP they are now, they’ve all got dedicated support and a housing pathway plan,” she said.

“We have had some really brilliant stories: someone has signed up for the armed forces, others have gained employment and many are off drugs and alcohol.

“Having three meals a day provided to them has really helped improve health and wellbeing and in a lot of cases people have been really inspired to turn their life around.”

She added that there was now an average of between 15 and 20 people rough sleeping within the council area and that all had been offered accommodation but had declined.

“We’re doing our very best to make sure that those people have a plan to get them off the streets and give them some meaningful experiences to get them back into work and into a positive relationship with society,” she said.

And she said the council was “really engaged” with work being carried out at a national level to eliminate homelessness.