MORE than £1m of funding to homelessness groups in Oxford is set to be handed out this week.

Oxford City Council will be asked to sign off funding for more than 20 groups and projects around the city.

It comes less than a month after Oxfordshire County Council cut its homelessness funding by £1.5m due to its serious financial situation.

Central government has provided the council with £942,722 of homelessness prevention funding for the coming financial year and the next one.

In addition the city council will be providing separate funding of £1.4m a year for the next four years for the problem.

At its meeting tomorrow, the city executive board will approve £1.1m of funding for 24 groups.

A survey carried out by the city council and Thames Valley Police in November found 19 people sleeping rough in Oxford. This was an increase from a year earlier when only 12 people were counted.

Nigel Northcott, director of The Porch Stepping Stone day centre in Magdalen Road, said the £55,000 his charity receives is vital.

Other bodies being funded are O’Hanlon House, to get £133,432, the Emmaus Oxford furniture shop, which will receive get £25,000, and The Gatehouse Cafe which will get £4,500.

A final decision on funding will be made by the city executive board on tomorrow evening at the Town Hall.