Liverpool City Council have outlined plans to tackle homelessness.
The local authority signed off a new strategy to address the issue on Tuesday after a 141% increase in the city’s rough sleepers over the past six years.
Demand for homelessness assessments also rose in the region by 19% between October and December last year compared to the previous 12 months.
One of the reasons attributed to the sharp increase in the council’s report was the lack of 24-hour operations by their outreach team until 2022.
The Whitechapel Centre has also recorded 164 people sleeping rough and 74 helped into new accommodation or supported return into existing solutions.
In response to those figures, the council’s new strategy seeks to utilise a ‘ladder approach’ that ensures homelessness is ‘rare, brief, and no-recurring’.
It will aim to support residents at risk of being homeless as early as possible and work with landlords and social housing providers to improve access to housing.
Cllr Sam East, cabinet member for housing, said: “Too often, responding to homelessness is seen as a reactive, emergency process. That has to change.
“We know that people experience housing stress in a variety of ways, beyond the most extreme form – rough sleeping on our streets.”