Last week West Sussex County Council published its Forward Plan where it recommended ceasing funding to the Crawley-located Open House homeless centre.

In response Crawley MP, Henry Smith, said;

“Crawley Open House is one of a kind with a fine history in providing help and support to homeless people from the local area in addition to those arriving from elsewhere looking for work. 

“Whilst not the local housing authority – that is Crawley Borough Council’s responsibility – I’m grateful for the years of discretionary funding that West Sussex County Council has provided Open House. I recognise they need to ensure efficient spending on behalf of local taxpayers but I think their proposal to now end grant funding to this charity is a false economy.

“Last week I called the County Leader, Louise Goldsmith, to re-think this suggested budget reduction.

“In Parliament this week I’ve called on the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government to allocate part of the Government’s new £100 million rough sleeping reduction initiative funding to support Open House and the effort to tackle homelessness more generally in Crawley.”