New accommodation to support people facing homelessness has been created in County Durham, to serve rough sleepers in the area who "want to stay close to friends and family".

Durham County Council has been awarded £300,000 to create accommodation in County Durham through the government’s Rough Sleeper Accommodation Fund.

During ‘Everyone In’, a scheme which supported rough sleepers to find accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic, the council identified rough sleepers in and around the Shildon area.

Many rough sleepers were reluctant to move outside of the area as they wanted to stay close to friends and family.

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As such, the council has used its allocation from the Rough Sleeper Accommodation Fund to redevelop Shildon’s People Centre into four self-contained flats.

These flats, now named Station House, will be owned and managed by the council and will serve as accommodation for people who are homeless or are facing homelessness in the Shildon area.

Cllr Alan Shield, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for equality and inclusion, said: “As a local authority, we are extremely committed to preventing people from ending up on the street.

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“We are working hard to sustain the reduction in the number of rough sleepers across the county, with reports of homelessness and rough sleeping being relatively low in comparison to previous times.

“During the coronavirus pandemic, we identified people in Shildon facing homelessness who would have benefitted from an increase in dedicated accommodation so they could remain close to friends and family.

“These new flats will help provide housing for people in this area while also enabling us to provide close support, and are a facility we are considering introducing in other areas of the county as part of our homelessness strategy.”