VULNERABLE homeless people with mental health issues in east Cheshire are being cast back out onto the street when discharged from hospital, due to a lack of emergency accommodation.

Cheshire East Council has confirmed that the problem has been happening in the borough and is now working to secure ‘emergency bed space’ and hire link workers to support vulnerable adults after being discharged from mental health wards.

The council has issued an invitation to tender for two emergency beds in the north of the borough and two in the south, with a £40,000 budget.

Within the invitation, Cheshire East Council procurement officer Tracy Roberts details the problem facing the mental health services.

“The aim is to close this revolving door,” she said.

“Cheshire East’s Housing Options Team and local mental health hospital units and services have experienced problems when leaving mental health hospitals or units.

“Some discharges have been last minute and Housing Options have been notified very late in the day. This has raised issues, in terms of patient welfare and safeguarding, and needing to place people into emergency accommodation which often in unsatisfactory.

“Cheshire East wants to prevent homelessness, and reduce the rate of re-admission to hospital.”

The council has already hired two link workers to work with mental health patients who are homeless when discharged.

A spokesman for Cheshire East Council said: “Strategic Housing are working collectively with the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership and Cheshire East mental health services to ensure that homeless people leaving hospital are provided with appropriate housing.

“In addition to the emergency beds, we are employing link staff who will be across all three services and working with people to find them the best housing solution.”

A study from national homeless charity, Crisis, shows that 49 per cent of homeless people in the UK suffer or have suffered from mental health problems.

The charity told the Guardian that the issue facing east Cheshire is something that the charity has been working hard to eradicate.

A spokesman for Crisis said: “This is very much a problem that we have been aware of for some time. The rates of mental health problems in homeless people are huge and can often be the cause of homelessness in a lot of people.

“We have very much got this danger of homelessness with people coming out of care and not getting the right support. There is always that danger that it will only make the mental health problems worse and you get that revolving door situation.”

The Homelessness Reduction Bill is expected to be voted through in Parliament today, Thursday, meaning problems such as this revolving door situation may be stopped.

If passed, the Bill would put a ‘duty to refer’ onto public bodies to make referrals to local authority homelessness teams.

The Crisis spokesman added: “The Homelessness Reduction Bill is huge and will hopefully put an end to problems like this.”