SEDGEMOOR District Council's housing officer painted a harrowing picture of homelessness in the region as he appealed for more than £100,000 funding for the next three years to help tackle the plight.

Housing officer Jerry Milton have a presentation at Sedgemoor District Council's Executive meeting, outlining the levels of hardships his officers were facing from their customers on a daily basis.

Mr Milton explained that Homelessness was on the increase nationally due to the changes by Government to welfare reforms, notably the introduction of the controversial Universal Credit, and locally because of the pressures of the Hinkley Point project which was seeing landlords favouring what they see as higher paid and ‘better’ tenants who they could get more money from.

Mr Milton confirmed that Sedgemoor was performing better than many councils in homelessness prevention but was now under pressure from these crucial factors.

In order to keep Sedgemoor at the forefront of the struggle extra money was needed and an additional growth bid was asked from the Executive of a further £105,500 per year over a three-year period.

“The homelessness we see on the street is the tip of the iceberg," Mr Milton said.

"There’s many other serious cases who hide away from public view because they are embarrassed by their circumstances, and end up on derelict sites and in empty buildings.

"Many of the cases we deal with stem from some childhood trauma and increasingly there’s mental health issues or drug-related factors.

"We’re also seeing an increasing number of ex-forces personnel in this situation."

Mr Milton explained that the average life expectancy of homeless people is 47 years and they are statistically nine times more likely to commit suicide.

"We have had such cases in Sedgemoor which are very distressing for my staff who have worked with these vulnerable people to try to find a solution and then feel they’ve let them down.

"Homelessness is literally life and death for some people. It’s our duty to find temporary accommodation for people when the system fails them and traditionally we’ve pointed people to the private sector but this is becoming harder to come by as landlords seek what they feel are ‘better’ or ‘more secure’ tenants on higher salaries coming to work at Hinkley.”

Mr Milton further alarmed members saying: “We deal with this and take our responsibilities seriously but frankly a lot of other authorities are rubbish and sometimes we find them putting their homeless on a train and just sending them down here to us to deal with.”

Sedgemoor District Council leader Duncan McGinty said: “We have a role to play and we can’t do it all but we are not washing our hands of the matter. Our budget is set but I will take this growth bid back for consideration”

Chair of the Sedgemoor Corporate Scrutiny Brian Smedley commented: “When Sedgemoor gets something right we have no hesitation in saying that and it’s clear that they are genuinely concerned about the Homelessness crisis.

"They have a dedicated frontline team who are doing a great job and as a result I’m sure the council will follow the leader's recommendation and increase the funding accordingly.

"However, the national factors at play here stem from policies created by the Conservative Government -namely the changes in welfare rules and the funding cuts to local authorities and so we need to deal with this issue nationally and as a priority."