Council to pursue £800,000 homeless grant, but campaigner criticises move

Terry Smith applied to open a homeless shelter in the city centre last year, but the move was rejected by city planners who said it could lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour.

The council has since applied for the £798,000 cash from the government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI), an application that was endorsed by the council’s cabinet this week.

It will be used to help pay for new staff to intervene and reduce the number of people who become homeless by identifying people at risk. It will be spent over three years.

First introduced in 2018, the council has already benefited from two rounds of RSI funding totalling more than £558,000.

But Mr Smith said: “I was shocked to read that the council have done a major U-turn and now admit that there is a need to deal with the growing number of rough sleepers and homeless people in Wakefield.

“This is after saying that there was not a problem to address when we submitted our planning application.

“They have applied for a £800,000 grant to help deal with rough sleeping.

“However, the grant is primarily to employ additional staff and not to provide much-needed accommodation.

“We remain willing to work with the council to help these unfortunate people and would welcome the opportunity to do so. At the end of the day we should all be working toward the same goal.”

Mr Smith submitted the blueprints to convert the former Fanny & Bacardi nightclub on Bank Street into a 17-bed hostel last year, but which had split opinion - attracting almost 250 comments.

Speaking after the decision was made, he told the Express: “They had the opportunity to be a flagship council and address the homeless problem head on, but instead they have chosen to pretend the problem does not exist, despite the homeless being clearly visible in our city.”An appeal was lodged on the decision and is going through the process. A decision is expected at a later date.