Zoe Young, Housing Options and Advice Service Manager for Sheffield City Council, told a scrutiny committee that they expect to have dealt with 600 homelessness cases by the end of March, up from 484 at this time last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There was also a 73% rise in the number of people placed into temporary accommodation. While being asked to leave by family and friends remains the most common cause of homelessness, there was a substantial increase in those leaving their homes after suffering domestic abuse during lockdown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tracey Ford, the council\u2019s City Centre Anti-Social Behaviour Manager, also discussed how the national lockdown had impacted the council\u2019s ability to help those at risk of homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n She said: \u201cPeople were running around like headless chickens, wondering how we were going to keep up with those displaced by Covid, how we would make sure they were being looked after and staying safe.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe likes of Ben\u2019s Centre, The Archer Project and St Wilfrid\u2019s really got their heads together and helped us to look at meeting the needs of these people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can only really operate at half capacity, and we are just opening when and where we can to try and provide support for people and help get them in touch with housing organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNormally, people come to our centre and we chat to them, we get to know them. When this day-to-day conversation isn\u2019t happening, we lose that information about people that we normally have.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, there are less places for people to go and present themselves when they are in trouble, there\u2019s less outreach going on. There\u2019s probably a lot of people out there who really want help that are struggling to tell us they need it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Credit: Deadly Sirius The number of homeless people in Sheffield rose by 24% this year, revealing the effects of the pandemic on the city\u2019s most vulnerable.\u00a0 Zoe Young, Housing Options and Advice Service Manager for Sheffield City Council, told a scrutiny committee that they expect to have dealt with 600 homelessness cases by the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":30277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[145,146,147,9,58],"class_list":["post-29965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bens-centre","tag-council","tag-homelessness","tag-sheffield","tag-sheffield-city-council"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/awesome-shockley.77-68-72-77.plesk.page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/21612303-C71B-4AC7-97AF-5F0C8CC1E9EC-300x300.jpeg\")
Ms Young admitted that, for as long as the pandemic continues, it will be difficult to reverse this trend. She said: \u201cThere is a significant risk that this number of cases will increase because of the pandemic, and our services will find it difficult to improve because of the pressures on resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/awesome-shockley.77-68-72-77.plesk.page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/4587BA39-624F-43AD-B829-BCBF421D94AC-300x296.jpeg\")
Daryl Bishop is the CEO of Ben\u2019s Centre, an organisation which provides support to those suffering with homelessness, alcoholism and substance abuse. While he was impressed at the way in which groups around Sheffield have worked together to help those in need, he said Covid restrictions have frustrated everyone\u2019s efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n