A NEW homelessness and rough sleeping strategy has been unanimously adopted by Carlisle City Council, guiding the authority’s approach towards addressing these issues for the coming five years.

At its full council meeting on Tuesday evening, members agreed to adopt a new homelessness prevention and rough sleeping strategy for 2021 to 2026, which will guide the city council's ongoing work, in partnership with a number of other organisations, to support those who find themselves homeless, as well as those on the verge of homelessness and those who find themselves sleeping rough.

This work is conducted by the city council's homelessness prevention and accommodation team, which in the past five years has prevented more than 2,000 households from becoming homeless.

More than 1,000 households were placed by the team in emergency accommodation - nearly 200 of those with dependent children.

The city council's economy, enterprise and housing portfolio holder, Conservative councillor Paul Nedved, said he was "very happy" to present to council the strategy, which includes key objectives on early intervention work and promoting safeguarding and harm minimisation.

"It's a very important document going forward," he said. "There's an incredible amount of work that has gone into it."

He added the strategy demonstrates "very clear, identified actions going forward" to support those who are facing homelessness, as well as to tackle the underlying causes of homelessness in the Carlisle area.

The strategy will guide the authority's work on homelessness prevention, seeking not only to respond immediately to those in most desperate need, but also to provide advice and support to those in vulnerable situations, as well as to address the deeper underlying causes that lead to people becoming homeless.