Brighton and Hove is to receive more money so that rough sleepers needing help for mental health problems can receive treatment more quickly.
The city is one of seven areas to share about £12 million alongside Birmingham, Haringay, Hull, Lambeth, Lincoln and Luton.
The NHS expects to commit about £30 million in total to 20 areas in England by 2023-24.
The money – about £60,000 a patient – is being allocated to fund specialist nurses, psychiatrists and other staff.
They will be expected to take a more positive approach rather than wait for rough sleepers to be referred to them.
And they will be expected to build relationships with homeless patients and to provide more consistent contact and support.
The aims include keeping rough sleepers from making repeat visits to busy hospital accident and emergency (A&E) departments – like the Royal Sussex County Hospital’s – where treatment is more costly than in, say, doctors’ surgeries.
Brighton already has a widely admired doctors’ surgery – rated outstanding by official inspectors – which specialises in treating homeless patients, in Morley Street.
