Council To Spend £4m Upgrading Homeless Centres

More than £4million is to be spent upgrading facilities at two homeless assessment centres in Liverpool. The government has awarded Liverpool City Council one of the highest grants outside London (£3.7m) after the Department for Communities and Local Government classed Liverpool’s plans as “a model of best practice that will offer inspiration to the rest of the country.” The money will be used to totally transform the two centres in north Liverpool where people claiming to be homeless are assessed.

Councillor Dave Antrobus, Liverpool’s executive member for community safety said: “This is fantastic news. This money will help us keep some of the most vulnerable people in the city off the streets. It will also be better for the public as we can drastically improve the look of both centres externally and provide much better security.”

The money will be spent demolishing and rebuilding the existing Men’s Direct Access Centre and fully refurbishing the women’s centre.

Improved education and training facilities and better links with health, education and employment providers will all be incorporated into the centres.

Both centres will feature separate facilities for young people, better site security, new CCTV systems and more welcoming reception areas.

Supported living development manager Chris Ferns said: “We have done very well to attract £3.7m funding into the city which will allow us to provide added services and minimise the amount of people sleeping rough on the streets. Liverpool has been very good at reducing homelessness and this latest grant proves we have not become complacent.”