Council chief ‘kept awake at night’ by a death of rough sleeper on the streets of Hartlepool

Councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council Audit and Governance Committee called for an update on what is being done in the town to support homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Denise McGuckin, council managing director, noted they have recently been granted funding from the Government and will be bringing a report in the near future around further support to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

She added they recently recorded one case of someone dying on the streets in the town, which was ‘absolutely dreadful’.

She said: “We are continuing to support those homeless and rough sleeping as we did earlier during wave one.

“We’ve been successful in getting some funding that the Government put a bidding competition in place for, as they do, and we put a bid together and we’ve been successful.

“This is an area that we do need additional resources in, and that is what the bid was about, identifying that additional resource to make sure we can support those individuals.

“It’s absolutely awful, somebody died on our streets just recently and that’s absolutely dreadful that that’s happening, in any town, but Hartlepool especially. That just kept me awake for a few nights, and continues to do.”

The update came after Cllr Marjorie James asked for information on what was being done to support homeless people in the area, after special measures were put in place to house them at the start of the pandemic.

Government ministers at the end of March declared local authorities across the country should identify rough sleepers and ‘get everyone in’ and under a roof for the duration of the first lockdown.

Cllr James said: “I know that there were special measures put in place about taking people that are genuinely homeless off the streets when Covid first broke out and was a major issue in March, April time.

“My understanding is that those individuals are no longer being supported in that way, they are, where they don’t have accommodation, actually back out on the streets, nationally.”

Cllr James added: “What arrangements over Christmas and during the winter months are we going to be able to put in place to support those individuals, and are we also convinced we have the necessary capacity to deal with that homeless demand?”

Bosses at Hartlepool Borough Council previously said from the end of March to the start of June a total of 73 homeless people were recorded by the housing advice team.

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