DETAILS about how City of York Council is spending a quarter of a million pounds in funding - which was recently re-announced by the Government - have been revealed.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire MP said last week that councils across Yorkshire and Humberside would share more than £2.5m, with £251,234 going to help the homeless in York.

This week, the council confirmed the funding had actually been received in September 2018, to reduce homelessness in 2019/2020 to help with prevention strategies and "highly-personalised" approaches tailored to individuals who were sleeping rough, or in danger or becoming homeless.

The money could be spent on training, putting down a deposit on a flat or providing a first month’s rent, buying a gym pass to improve an individual’s health and wellbeing, helping with haircuts or clothes to attend training or interviews and buying furniture to help people settle and stay in their homes.

Tom Brittain, assistant director of housing and community safety, said: "It will contribute to ongoing, targeted work to create safe and supported housing options for sleepers and single homeless people with complex needs.

"This will include extra outreach and mental health services, work with the private rented sector to secure accommodation and continued training for individuals to help them secure and remain in accommodation."

The Press reported in January that more than a quarter of all homeless deaths in Yorkshire and Humberside in 2017 took place in York, and in February that a sharp rise in the number of homeless people seeking help in A&E had been reported.

City of York Council said its homelessness strategy had helped to reduce the number of rough sleepers from 29 to nine in recent years, and new accommodation was being built to help prevent people becoming homeless in the city.