Threat to Coventry homeless

COVENTRY SOCIALIST Party councillor Dave Nellist has warned that council budget cuts for Coventry's leading homelessness charity will see more people sleeping rough in that city from next month.

After news that the homelessness charity, Coventry Cyrenians, was facing a Ł750,000 cut in its Ł2.2 million budget from the end of September, Dave told a meeting of councillors that a much-reduced homelessness service at the Cyrenians would be unable to cope. It would have to turn away referrals from Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry council's own children's services, the police and city wardens.

The Tory Cabinet member for Housing Services agreed to Dave's request for an urgent meeting of senior councillors to see whether the situation can be reversed or, if not, how the city would cope with more people sleeping rough.

Dave Nellist said: "Home-lessness in Coventry is less visible than in many other cities because of excellent work by the Cyrenians. But unemployment locally has doubled in the last 12 months, and could double again; and as those numbers rise so will family break-ups, evictions, and homelessness.

"We live in a country that can afford hundreds of billions of pounds to protect bankers and their bonuses, but the most vulnerable in our society, without shelter or a home, face service cuts in the help they desperately need."

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