A Northampton charity that supports the homeless will take on two new houses to offer more rough sleepers a home.
The Northampton Association for Accommodation of Single Homeless (NAASH) will lease a four and a three bedroom house in Spring Boroughs from Northampton Borough Council, to offer around seven homeless people a place to stay.
The new house will form part of the Government-supported No Second Night Out scheme, which is based on the belief that no one should spend a second night out on the street.
Theresa Kelly, the manager of NAASH, said: “Without the scheme there would be additional people sleeping rough, who would not be picked up by any other services.
“Some don’t know how to claim benefits, know what their rights are around housing or have anywhere else they can go to.
“A lot of the customers come from relationship breakdowns, which are either parental or partners, or have lost jobs and their landlord won’t accept housing benefit.
“Without the No Second Night Out project there would be nowhere for these customers to access as they do not have support needs, which is the criteria for Oasis House.”
NAASH, which is based in Oasis House, in Campbell Street, already manages houses in Spring Boroughs, where they provided a base for 34 rough sleepers last year.
There are still seven rough sleepers living at the properties but the rest have gone onto other housing.
The No Second Night Out scheme is being funded by Government money distributed by the Homeless Transitional Fund, which is part of Homeless Link.
For more details about NAASH visit http://naash.co.uk