Temporary Accommodation Support Packages
The Community & Wellbeing service and Homelessness Team at West Lancashire Borough Council are working collaboratively to aim to provide an initial relief package and supporting information to vulnerable families in West Lancashire who find themselves needing temporary accommodation.
The turnover of people in temporary accommodation varies greatly; residents can stay for days, weeks or months. The length of stay in temporary accommodation in West Lancashire has increased on average from 40 days to 99 days in 2022/23. As of 24/5/24 there are currently 10 families with child/ren in WLBC's temporary accommodations. Because of this, we will be doing a pilot of this project; making 10 packs, and gathering feedback on them.
Families with children may become homeless through the night, or because of emergency situations, and therefore may not have many belongings with them. A small food and toiletries parcel for these families aims:
- To ensure families have access to some nutritional food on arrival into temporary accommodation, therefore provide relief from hunger for the first day or night.
- To alleviate some financial strain on families and enable them to use what money they have on other essentials.
- To alleviate some stress from families at the point of moving into a temporary accommodation.
- To provide families with a sense of community support.
- To decrease chances of health issues related to malnutrition.
We will also provide the families with valuable information, such as the locations of local support services and nearby amenities like the supermarket, GP, and dentist. This is important as they may be unfamiliar with the area due to their recent move.
A variety of essential food and non-food items that we are looking to include in the packs are:
- UHT long-life milk
- Tea bags, coffee
- Cereal, biscuits
- Tinned: beans, soup fruit, fish, meat, vegetables
- Pasta, pasta sauce, rice
- Fruit juice
- Chopped tomatoes
- Lentils, beans, pulses
- Soap
- Toilet roll
- Deodorant
- Washing up liquid
- Shampoo
- Shower gel
- Sanitary products
- Baby wipes
- Laundry wipes
- Toothpaste
- Toothbrushes
We are asking for support from local charities and organisations for any of the above product donations. If you would like to discuss this pilot project in more detail, please contact Stephanie.Cooper@westlancs.gov.uk
