Funding available for community groups to support rough sleeping prevention and recovery initiatives

31 October 2025

Voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations across West Northamptonshire are being invited to apply for grant funding to deliver community-based projects that prevent and support recovery from rough sleeping.

Following the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) announcement of the 2025/26 Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has secured £111,291 to provide vital services for people who are sleeping rough, at risk of becoming homeless, or at risk of returning to the streets.

The Council is now seeking expressions of interest from VCFSE organisations to deliver projects that will make a real difference in people’s lives by helping to prevent homelessness, support with trauma, and improve long-term wellbeing.

Priority areas for funding include:

• Peer support and lived experience engagement: initiatives involving people with lived experience of homelessness as mentors and advocates.
• Extended provision with accommodation: trauma-informed support available 24/7, including weekends and bank holidays, to ensure continuity of support.
• Specialist expertise: organisations with a deep understanding of the rough sleeper community and experience supporting people facing Multiple Exclusion Homelessness (MEH) and Severe Multiple Disadvantage (SMD).
• Community-based drop-in projects and services: inclusive hubs providing access to food, showers, laundry, and social connection, linking individuals to wider support.
• Specialist support for complex needs: tailored, trauma-informed projects addressing mental health, substance misuse, and vulnerabilities among marginalised groups.
• Move-on and resettlement support: initiatives promoting tenancy sustainment, budgeting advice, digital access, and community reconnection.
• Rapid response and crisis intervention: frontline support offering emergency packs, phones, transport, and relocation assistance.
• Cultural and faith-based outreach and tenancy sustainment: support from faith or culturally rooted organisations helping migrants, refugees, and people with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) to access housing and integration services.

“The VCFSE sector plays a vital role in reaching and supporting individuals who might not otherwise engage with statutory services. By investing in these organisations, we’re helping to meet local needs, strengthen community resilience, and improve outcomes for people at risk of, or currently experiencing, rough sleeping.

“These grant-funded programmes are focused on providing meaningful support for those sleeping rough, at risk of losing their accommodation, or vulnerable to returning to the streets, ensuring help is available when and where it’s most needed.”Cllr Charlie Hastie, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities

Organisations interested in applying are invited to submit an Expression of Interest for the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant by 10am on Wednesday, 19 November 2025.

To receive an application form, please email [email protected] with the subject line ‘Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant’.