By Kevin Papps
The Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) was set up in October 2018 to reduce the number of rough sleepers in Taunton and Wellington.
The Council (TDBC prior to the formation of SWT)) was successful in a bid for funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) under the Government strategy to half rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it by 2027.
SWT now has a full team working tirelessly to help all the rough sleepers in the Somerset West and Taunton area.
A big part of the RSI Taunton strategy is to find appropriate housing for our rough sleepers. ARC operate a general needs hostel in East Reach (Lindley House) that takes the majority of people and does excellent work in supporting former rough sleepers back to independent living.
However, not everyone fits into this category and we need additional housing for some of our former rough sleepers. We already have four private lets that are shared housing rented from local landlords. This has been extremely successful and we are now looking for 1 or 2 bed properties to start the move-on process into more independent living.
We are looking for local landlords to work with us to bring the RSI project to a successful conclusion in the next 15 months up to March 2021.
If you are interested in renting to SWT please email me: k.papps@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk- or Facebook messenger (Taunton Streetwise)
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