With central government funding for homelessness support set to expire in March 2025, three Oxfordshire-based charities have warned what that could mean for the people who depend on their services.
Read BBC Oxford and Oxford Mail coverage of this story.
Describing the situation as a ‘funding cliff-edge’, Aspire Oxfordshire, Connection Support and Homeless Oxfordshire have called on local MPs ahead of the Autumn Budget announcement to raise their concerns about the stark reality of a reduction in funding.
Chris Keating, CEO of Connection Support, said: “Should the central Government funding not continue, higher costs are likely to be accrued elsewhere. We can expect to see a dramatic rise in the number of people sleeping rough, an increased need for temporary accommodation, greater demands on emergency services, longer stays in hospital for homeless individuals, and an increased need for drug and alcohol support services.”
Perhaps most worryingly though, the charities have predicted an increased number of preventable deaths among homeless individuals as a result of services having to be cut.
One such funding stream that will be affected is the Rough Sleeper Initiative; funding that is allocated nationally to provide local councils with the resource to provide frontline homelessness support services. This stream alone accounts for approximately 50% of funding for homelessness services in Oxford City.
Nicci Marzec, CEO of Aspire Oxfordshire, said: “The funding we receive is already insufficient to operate all of the services we provide and, as charities, we all heavily supplement the cost of services through our reserves and fundraised income. Any reduction in funding will significantly impact the services and support we are able to provide.”
Alongside national membership charity Homeless Link, the three charities are calling for a one-year rollover of existing homelessness funding into 2025/26, and a systematic review of all homelessness-related spending across government for 2026/27 onwards.
The three charities met with Anneliese Dodds, Labour MP for Oxford East, and Sean Woodcock, Labour MP for Banbury, to raise their concerns about the imminent reduction in funding ahead of the Autumn Budget announcement. Anneliese Dodds committed to write to the Treasury and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, to outline her concerns about the homelessness funding cliff-edge and the need to review homelessness-related spending.
Simon Hewett-Avison, CEO of Homeless Oxfordshire, said: “We are extremely grateful to both Anneliese and Sean for taking the time to hear about this troubling situation for people experiencing homelessness in Oxfordshire. We urge them, and other MPs, to support the people in their constituencies who will be affected by the loss of funding by raising the issue in Parliament to help make a lasting change to this situation.”
