It’s a win!

On Friday 9th February, almost a year since our campaigning began, we heard the fantastic news that Devon County Council will continue to fund the 18+ Homeless Prevention Contribution until March 2025. Praise God! 
 
In a Devon County Council Cabinet meeting, Councillor James McInnes confirmed that due to additional funding announced in the Secretary of State’s Written Statement on 24 January 2024, the Cabinet is now able to “retain the budget for the Authority’s contributions to homelessness services, providing further time for engagement with districts on the longer-term arrangements.”
 
This news is a wonderful result for all those who seek to help the homeless all across Devon. For us, the £157,000 a year we receive from DCC enables us to intercede at the crisis point of a young person’s life and give them the tailored, supported care they need to move forward.   
 
We appreciate that councils across the country are under enormous financial pressures, but Devon County Council has made an excellent decision. Funding Supported Housing for the homeless, saves lives and saves money. We will be continuing to pray that other Local Authorities across the country will see the wise decision of Devon and consider their own services. 
 
We’re so thankful to Devon County Council for listening to the voices of service users and the general public, calling for this essential funding to continue. 
 
And we’d like to say a big thank you, to you, our supporters and friends. Thank you for speaking up, responding to the public consultation and committing to pray with us.  
 
Moving forward, we are committed to working with DCC and the district councils to agree longer-term arrangements for homelessness services past March 2025.  
 
This year regulations are being implemented to ensure supported housing is the best value for money. Now that the cuts are not going ahead we won’t risk losing excellent service providers before the assessments have been made. This confirmation of funding will also allow us time to work with the districts to find ways to fund the essential services in other ways other than through Devon County Council’s homelessness preventative funding.   

Thank you for prayerfully supporting us on this journey!