THE city council hopes to move a large number of rough sleepers who are currently being housed in another town back to Brighton "as soon as we can".

Brighton and Hove City Council say the 130 people currently accommodated in Eastbourne "all have on-site security and our Welfare Officers are also providing weekly on-site support at hotels where it is Covid-safe to do so".

Councillor David Gibson, joint chairman of the Housing Committee, said: “We appreciate that accommodating homeless people outside the city is far from ideal and our policy is to house in the city, and prioritise those with greatest needs for housing in the city.

"We will always prefer to keep people in the city and officers have done brilliantly to secure a lot of extra accommodation here in the past 12 months.

"However, given the numbers of people we’re supporting, and the slow down of our move on placements over the last six weeks, it’s sadly not always possible."

Brighton and Hove City Council says it has worked with health and voluntary sector partners to provide self-contained accommodation to about 400 additional people who were living on the streets of Brighton at any one time.

As a result, there are currently around 1,850 households in emergency and temporary accommodation in total.

It is because of the large number of people needing support that some rough sleepers were sent to Eastbourne for accommodation.

A council spokesman said: "Our priority is always to accommodate people in Brighton & Hove, but unfortunately not all of that capacity is within the city.

"A lot of larger councils are facing the same challenges and need to place homeless households in other areas.

"We’re currently accommodating around 130 people in Eastbourne. All have on-site security and our Welfare Officers are also providing weekly on-site support at hotels where it is Covid-safe to do so.

"We are moving people back to the city as soon as we can but people become homeless everyday, adding to the pressure on all our emergency accommodation."

The council says it has recently secured 90 further hotel rooms, which has allowed officials to help move more people back to Brighton.

It is also working with people in emergency accommodation on their move-on plan, the process by which they secure a permanent housing arrangement.

So far, more than 250 people have been able to move on, with most successfully rehoused in more stable housing.

But, in recent weeks, the rate of people moving on has slowed and the number of new rough sleepers found in the city has increased back to pre-pandemic levels.

A council spokesman said: "We’ve secured extra government funding to provide more long-term accommodation and support, but the shortage of suitable housing options and staffing required to support moves means we’re still facing a huge challenge to move people on successfully."

Yesterday, Cllr David Gibson was joined by executive director for Housing, Neighbourhoods and Communities Rachel Sharpe and assistant director for Housing Martin Reid at Eastbourne Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee.

There, they discussed the accommodation of Brighton and Hove's rough sleepers in Eastbourne.

Cllr Gibson said: "These are unprecedented times and we are rightly proud of the support we’ve been able to offer homeless people to keep them safe through the pandemic.

"It has led to Brighton and Hove having the largest decrease of people sleeping rough in the country outside London, and it will make a lasting difference to the lives of many people.

"We are also proud that we are expanding our supply of housing first accommodation and support beyond the funds allowed by the government.

"This will be a step change in provision which will rescue many more people from long-term ‘revolving door’ homelessness.

"By the end of next year, we should have 60 housing first placements compared with 22 at the beginning of this year.

"The current pressures facing Brighton and Hove need to be seen as part of a wider problem facing a number of local authorities in the region and which we all need to work with government to resolve together.

"Unless we are supported more by government to rapidly increase the supply of affordable housing we are likely at best to be running to stand still."