For over 36 years Crawley Open House has been helping to tackle homelessness in Crawley, providing support, food and accommodation for those who have nowhere else to go, but from next April that could end.

West Sussex County Council has announced that from next year they plan to cut their entire Housing Related Support budget, a decision which is likely to mean the closure of every homeless shelter in West Sussex and the loss of support for many vulnerable and elderly residents at home.

This decision will deprive the most desperate members of our society of somewhere safe to go, it is a deeply immoral act and in time the affects will be felt by the whole community.

Just two weeks ago, the Government re-announced their manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping by 2027, yet we now we see the county council attempting to rush through under the radar a decision which is set to make the problem far worse.

This petition demands that West Sussex County Council rejects the proposed cuts to Housing Related Support, which will cause untold misery for the most vulnerable members of our society, and instead maintains this vital support for our local homeless.

Cllr Peter Lamb
Leader, Crawley Borough Council