Worthing Homes gets £4m grant

Skywaves House, in Ivy Arch Road, Worthing, is being demolished to make way for housing for homeless people. Picture: Worthing Borough Council

The council secured the grant to build 34 new homes, communal rooms for group therapy and a homelessness drop in centre with its housing association Worthing Homes.

Worthing Homes had already purchased Skywaves House, in Ivy Arch Road, Worthing and is using £2.6million of the grant to demolish and deliver 21 new homes with homelessness charity Turning Tides, which will run the development once finished – with the council hoping the first tenants will be in by 2025.

The new three-storey apartment block will include offices for Turning Tides, which will provide 24-hour support for the buidling’s tenants.

Demolition work at Skywaves House in Ivy Arch Road, Worthing. Picture: Worthing Borough Council

The council said homelessness would be supported elsewhere in the borough with the remaining £1.4million.

The grant is part of a £148.4million package announced on Tuesday, November 28, from the government as part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC) Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP).

The scheme aims to help deliver 1,230 extra council houses across 46 local authorities in England, as well as additional support services, and repairs and renovations to existing homes.

SHAP hopes to deliver 2,400 homes across England by March, 2025, as set out by a commitment in 2022 to putting £2billion towards ending rough sleeping in the country.

Worthing Borough is on the SHAP target authorities list for both adult and young rough sleepers, with neighbouring Arun District Council on the target list for adult rough sleepers.