The Big Lottery Fund is seeking dialogue with homeless charities in Edinburgh over funding, warning there is a finite amount of money available

Homeless charities in Edinburgh have been told they must work together if they want to continue receiving lottery funding.

The Big Lottery Fund has said it cannot commit significant funding to the fight against homelessness in Edinburgh until it meets all the organisations involved to discuss how funds can be best used.

Charity Streetwork took to social media on Thursday to express its shock at losing funding for its young persons’ outreach service.

The charity received a grant of £530,037 in 2014 to help provide its Streetyouth project, which provides vital support to those aged under 25 who face homelessness in the capital, but learned this week that an application for funding to continue the project had been knocked back.

The Big Lottery Fund confirmed it had rejected applications for a number of homeless projects in Edinburgh, and said that it was seeking further dialogue with the groups involved.

A Big Lottery Fund spokesperson said: “In the last four years alone, we have invested over £4.1 million of National Lottery funding in projects tackling homelessness in Edinburgh. While we are proud of what this funding has achieved, our funding is always time limited.

“We understand that it is disappointing for those organisations who have just been turned down for funding, but with a finite amount of money available we want to take stock of our financial support which focuses on tackling homelessness in Edinburgh.

“We will therefore be working with these and other organisations, both statutory and third sector as well as other funders, to better understand where our financial support will have the biggest impact before we commit significant funds to address this issue.”