Accommodation, food and support is available for people sleeping rough in the city who need the council’s help over Christmas.
Brighton and Hove City Council will be opening their Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP shelter from the evening of Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day and from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day.
With Covid restrictions again limiting drop-in charitable events for people rough sleeping, the Council will be providing food for everyone who needs it in their SWEP accommodation.
A Christmas meal on Christmas Day will be offered and thanks to many generous donations, festive food and snacks will be available for people to enjoy.
At other times the city Council's, SWEP will open when the temperature is predicted to feel like zero degrees Celsius or below, or when there is an amber weather warning.
As last year, the SWEP venue has self-contained rooms and referrals are made through the street outreach service. This is to help to protect this vulnerable section of the community against Covid.
Health and welfare support will continue throughout the Christmas period for everyone accommodated, both within the city and elsewhere.
Free PPE and testing kits will be provided wokr will take place to promote the uptake of vaccinations for anyone sleeping rough – ever more important with the current Omicron outbreak.
So far this winter, SWEP has been triggered 14 times since opening and the sheltered has supported up to 37 on the busiest nights. The service has been accessed 296 times by 66 different people.
If you’re concerned about anyone sleeping rough in the Brighton and Hove area, including people staying in tents, you can let the Council know by reporting through the Streetlink website or by calling 0300 500 0914. The street outreach team will then contact them to try to offer appropriate support and housing assistance.
It’s important that anyone sleeping rough is offered help as soon as possible and that the assistance offered meets their needs, so accommodation for people on the streets is provided through referrals from organisations who understand what’s available and what support is needed.
Reporting where people are through Streetlink is the best way of making sure that people get the support they need. This route helps us support people still sleeping on the streets into emergency accommodation.
For more information on homelessness visit the website.
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