This World Homelessness Day (10 October), a local authority says it is facing the highest ever demand for the support it provides around homelessness.

Sefton Council says it has seen an increase of over 100% in the number of eligible households in temporary accommodation since August 2023, with as many as 200 households per month presenting as homeless.

With ever increasing costs for temporary accommodation to house individuals and families, the council is meeting the challenge by introducing programmes to help tackle homelessness in the borough.

This work has included the introduction of a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy, and the local authority says its continuing close collaboration with its partners to help alleviate homelessness throughout Sefton and the wider Liverpool city-region is helping to provide positive outcomes for thousands of our residents each year.

Working with housing association Riverside, the council’s Families Service offers families two- or three-bed furnished Riverside homes near networks of intensive support.

Homes supplied through the scheme are furnished and families have the option to transfer from temporary to general needs tenancy when they are ready.

Last year, the Sefton Families Service won the Best Initiative for Tackling Homelessness category at the Northern Housing Awards.

Construction is also underway on Sefton’s first new council housing since 2006, with 18 one and two-bed apartments to be let at affordable social rent rates being built in Netherton. The council says it is committed to creating new social and affordable homes in the coming years.

Last week, Sefton Council Cabinet agreed a strategy to procure furnished and maintained accommodation for eligible homeless households.

Cllr Daren Veidman, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Highways said: “Each year, World Homelessness Day highlights the problems being faced by families who have lost their homes, often through no fault of their own and due to circumstances beyond their control.

“I am pleased to say that through innovative approaches such as the award-winning Sefton Families Service, increased preventative approaches from our homeless teams and the construction of the Borough’s first new council housing in almost 20 years, we are tackling the problem.

“However, the growth in numbers of households seeking the support of our homelessness services and the steep rise in the cost of providing them with interim accommodation, shows we need to take further action such as this the proposal to create more temporary accommodation.

“We also welcome the government’s plans to introduce its Renters’ Rights Bill, will which provide tenants with greater protections and prevent them being made homelessness through no-fault evictions.”

Anyone in Sefton finding themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness or who know someone who is, can find out about support available from Sefton Council at www.sefton.gov.uk/homeless