Funding for homeless services could be cut

Funding for two of the Rochdale borough’s homeless services could be cut under a new consultation by the council.

Rochdale Borough Council has proposed reducing the annual voluntary sector grants paid to both Brentwood Middleton Day Centre and Petrus Community Hub in Rochdale by £4,000.

They currently receive an annual contribution of £65,700 and £144,720 respectively.

Brentwood, the only service of its kind in the Middleton area, opened in May 1989 as a direct result of the work of the Middleton Working Party on Homelessness, a group set up to investigate the problem of homelessness within the Middleton and surrounding areas.

It provides support to homeless and vulnerable members of the Middleton community whilst Petrus Community, a homelessness charity proving residential and day services, operates in the Borough of Rochdale, Rossendale and Oldham. 

Along with working to get homeless people off the street quickly, Petrus manages a range of supported housing services, a community store and a community garden, Petrus Incredible Edible Rochdale.

John Crosby, Manager at Brentwood Middleton Day Centre, said: “We are aware of the consultation for proposed cuts of £4,000 over a two-year period.

“At face value, this might not seem a lot, but when you consider that we have already had a reduction of £44,000 to our budget, this leaves us perilously close to having not enough funds to operate on.

“This is a total reduction of £48,000 over the last five years, which is around 50% of our original grant.

“Any service would find it hard to operate on these reductions to its budget, and it is getting increasingly hard to get these funds from other sources.

“Whilst we understand that the local authority has to make cuts, we also believe that we should receive a grant annually that allows us to operate fully.

“We believe that our service underpins the vital work we do in combatting the hardship and crisis facing the Middleton community and the risk of homelessness associated with these issues.”

Between April 2016 and March 2017, over 5,300 users attended Brentwood with 1,925 referrals for a variety of problems including homelessness and housing, medical, benefits, criminal justice and employment and education.

Additionally, for the same time period, over 4,800 people took advantage of the centre’s provisions at the centre, including breakfast and dinner, bath/shower/shave, laundry and haircuts.

A spokesperson for Petrus Community said: “We understand the difficult position that Rochdale Council is in as it looks to make continued savings and we will continue to work closely with them to ensure we support the most vulnerable people in the area.

“The Petrus Hub currently supports 60 people every day by providing them with breakfast, lunch, shower facilities and support opportunities.”

Donna Bowler, Assistant Director of Highways, Property and Strategic Housing at Rochdale Borough Council said: “To address our budget gap of £3.6 million for 2019/20, we’re consulting on a range of proposals including a reduction of just less than 2% to the annual council contribution to the Petrus and Brentwood grant funding for the next two financial years. 

"The council recognise that any reduction in funding for frontline homelessness services is likely to impact adversely but it is envisioned that this proposal to achieve a modest reduction will enable the agencies affected some re-assurance of continuity of funding for the next two years. 

"A consultation is still underway and no decisions have been taken so we encourage everyone to give us their views by 10 September on this or on any alternatives.”

The consultation closes Monday 10 September 2018.

Contact

Survey: https://consultations.rochdale.gov.uk/council-wide/nh-2019-20-013/consultation/intro/

Email: consultation@rochdale.gov.uk

Write to: Freepost RTKH-UCCB-JSJU,

(Rochdale Borough Council, PO Box 100, Public Consultation)

Rochdale,

OL16 9NP