A FORECAST of three consecutive nights below freezing is the point at which East Hampshire District Council will offer a bed to rough sleepers, a meeting has heard.

The Severe Weather Emergency Protocol is part of the council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleepers Strategy and Action Plan 2019–2024, which was recommended by the cabinet on December 17 and adopted unanimously by the full council on Thursday.

Council surveys found the number of rough sleepers in the district had increased over the past five years.

It estimated that there were 21 people sleeping on the streets in 2013–14, rising to 31, 36 and 38 over the next three years. The figure dropped to 25 in 2017–18 before leaping to 56 in 2018–19.

The action plan states: “For people who are homeless and without entitlement or access to housing, the provision of Severe Weather Emergency Protocol is their only chance to escape severe weather.

“While it should not be the only response to rough sleeping, it is vital to prevent harm and death. This is the only type of provision that is open to all, including people with no recourse to public funds and those who have been excluded from other services.

“East Hampshire District Council has been very flexible in respect of the weather criteria and has extended it in times of extreme wet and windy weather too.”

Under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, the council had to conduct a homelessness review and devise a strategy to prevent, relieve and address homelessness in the district by the end of 2019.

Use of bed and breakfast accommodation increased significantly when new duties were imposed by the 2017 Act and this led the council to look at alternatives.

These include a plan to convert Pinewood Village Hall in Bordon into housing ‘pods’, consisting of seven studio flats and three mobile homes for the homeless. Have your say before February 4, at tinyurl.com/yh5rop56