Helping the city’s most vulnerable residents
Published: 30 October 2019
The government’s commitment to end rough sleeping in 2020 has resulted in the City Council joining forces with homeless charity St Petrock’s to launch a new social lettings agency.
Exeter City Council has received funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government through the Rapid Rehousing Pathway Fund and the Private Rented Access Fund, to set up some exciting new initiatives to improve access to the Private Rented Sector in the city. One initiative is to work with St Petrock’s to support the setup a Social Lettings Agency.
The agency will work to open up access to the private rented sector to provide a wider range of private, good quality and affordable rented accommodation options for people who are experiencing extreme housing need and who require additional support to access this sector.
This new project will build on the success of St Petrock’s current private rental sector work and widen its appeal by providing a rapid rehousing pathway to accommodate rough sleepers in private rental accommodation, assist people to move on from supported housing in the city and to house people who are approaching the City Council with a housing need.
Cllr Emma Morse, Lead Councillor for Supporting People, said: “The City Council is pleased to back this project, which supports our key objective of supporting vulnerable people to access secure accommodation in Exeter.
“We are delighted to be working with St Petrock’s to create a social lettings agency which will widen the access to quality accommodation in the private rented sector for many of those who are most in need. Any landlord who wants to be involved or know more about this exciting project then please get in touch with St Petrock’s.”
Mel Hartley, Project Manager at St Petrock’s, said: “This project will help to further support people experiencing significant housing issues to access long term, good quality, affordable accommodation in the city and beyond.
“We already work with over 80 local landlords and hope to be able to significantly enhance this access.”
St Petrock’s is an Exeter-based charity that aims to address the problem of homelessness, particularly single homelessness and has been in operation since 1994. It provides a range of emergency, support and prevention services that are accessible and flexible and can respond rapidly to people in crisis or emergency.
The project will initially run for 12 months, and goes live on Monday, 28 October.