Agenda item

To consider a joint report by the Principal Manager and Service Manager:  Community Support Services (copy attached) seeking the Committee’s views and support for the Council’s corporate approach towards preventing homelessness

 

10.10am – 10.45am

The Lead Member for Well-being and Independence introduced the report and appendices (previously circulated) the purpose of which was to outline the progress made to date with the new corporate approach to dealing with homelessness in the county.  The report included the new draft Corporate Homelessness Action Plan along with details of the recent restructure of the Homelessness Prevention Team which formed part of the Council’s Community Support Services.  Also detailed in the report was the Council’s corporate approach towards preventing homelessness, providing emergency/temporary accommodation to individuals and families who presented themselves as homeless, and how the Council then worked to move those in emergency/temporary accommodation on to long-term sustainable housing solutions.  During her introduction the Lead Member emphasised that homelessness was an increasing problem across Wales and as a result the Welsh Government (WG), similar to Denbighshire and other local authorities, had identified the need to address the matter as a priority. 

 

The Lead Member explained that part of Denbighshire’s solution for addressing homelessness issues involved the establishment of a partnership with Conwy County Borough Council to trial a pilot project across both counties called Housing First.  Details of the project were contained in Appendix 6 to the report.  Grant funding from the WG’s Housing First Trailblazers fund, totalling £330K, had been awarded to the pilot project which had resulted in the establishment of a new team to assist homeless people with high and complex needs.  The Team’s aim was to ensure people were settled as quickly as possible into their own home and provided with the relevant support.  Support would be available to them for as long as they needed it in order for them to be able to sustain their tenancy.  Evidence gathered from across the UK and other parts of the world indicated that this type of innovative approach had the potential to deliver a sustainable way out of homelessness, improve health and well-being and enable social integration.  Housing First in Conwy and Denbighshire expected to welcome its first tenants before the end of July 2019. 

 

Denbighshire’s decision to adopt a corporate approach towards tackling homelessness and appointing a Corporate Director to lead that work underlined its commitment to reducing the number of individuals and families presenting themselves as homeless in the county.  In future the delivery of the Homelessness Strategy Action Plan would be led by the Housing Strategy Group.  The focus of the Action Plan was early intervention and prevention.  The introduction of the Single Access Route to Housing (SARTH) had assisted the authority and registered social landlords (RSLs) to prioritise applicants for social housing, however, the majority of the homeless households were currently sitting in Band 2 and were not in the high priority banding.  Both the local authority and RSLs were in the process of co-ordinating the building and purchase of approximately 370 affordable/social housing units.

 

Councillor Brian Blakeley informed the Committee that, in his capacity as the Council’s Homelessness Champion, he had witnessed first-hand the excellent work the Homelessness Team undertook under very difficult circumstances at times, and was confident that the Council was moving forward in its aims of addressing the county’s homelessness issues.

 

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member, Corporate Director:  Economy and Public Realm, Head of Community Support Services and the Principal Manager:  Support Services:

·         provided clarity on who was classed as ‘homeless’ – Denbighshire had a very limited number of people sleeping rough.  Its ‘homeless’ individuals and families tended to be:

Ø  staying with friends on a temporary basis (sofa surfers);

Ø  tenants whose landlords wanted to sell the property where they lived;

Ø  victims of domestic abuse;

Ø  people whose homes were about to be repossessed following failures to keep up mortgage or rent payments;

Ø  young people who were no longer able to live at home but had insufficient income to rent or buy a place of their own etc. 

It was emphasised that not all homeless people were vulnerable individuals, but may be people who had fallen on hard times due to no fault of their own i.e. being made redundant or unemployed;

·         confirmed people from outside of the county could present themselves as homeless in Denbighshire if they could prove a local connection with the area;

·         advised the legal requirement for a local authority to have and to publish a Homelessness Strategy was laid out in the Housing (Wales) Act 2014;

·         emphasised having all Council services’ input into the Homelessness Strategy and taking ownership of it could only benefit and strengthen the Council’s approach to finding sustainable solutions and relieving pressures on other services.  Nevertheless there would always be some need for emergency and temporary accommodation to meet people’s needs in the short term.  Having a nominated Lead Member and Corporate Director to lead the Council’s work to in relation to homelessness issues ensured that every effort was made to find sustainable solutions;

·         advised the Council’s Empty Homes Strategy, which aimed to return 500 empty properties back into occupancy, would help alleviate homelessness in the county.  However, not all 500 properties were intended for occupation by people/families presenting as homeless.  The Empty Homes Strategy was one piece of a large jigsaw aimed at delivering the Council’s corporate priority relating to housing;

·         advised the Council was looking to devise solutions to problems faced by young people, particularly young single people, in trying to access suitable housing.  Work was currently underway with the Working Denbighshire project and with RSLs to explore potential packages that could help young single people to access suitable housing and establish themselves as a householder;

·         provided an overview of the Housing First initiative which was to find the individual or family with complex needs a home first and then work with them via the provision of intensive support to help them establish themselves and develop the required skills to sustain a long-term tenancy and consequently improve their well-being.  In order to establish this initiative both councils had worked closely with landlords in order to secure suitable properties to let to Housing First tenants.   Through the Landlord Offer, the Council would take-on the tenancy on behalf of the vulnerable individual/family and be liable to pay the rent to the landlord prior to being reimbursed through the Housing Benefit system.  To date 18 properties had been secured via this method which gave the landlords security in relation to rental payments.  If the supported resident(s) gained the anticipated confidence and skills as a result of the intensive support provided to them the objective would be for the Council to negotiate with the landlord to secure the transfer of the tenancy to the resident in the long-term;    

·         confirmed the Strategic Housing and Homelessness Group (SHHG) would approve its terms of reference at its next meeting.  The objective of its re-establishment was to give a greater focus on delivering the Housing Strategy and to incorporate the Homelessness Strategy and Action Plan into the Council’s overall Housing Strategy and Action Plan with a view to ensuring a corporate approach to all housing related matters;

·         confirmed the Council did not have plans currently in place to deal with any major reduction in Supporting People (SP) funding that may result from the WG’s redistribution of the SP Housing Support Grant.  If it transpired that this redistribution would have an significant adverse effect on the authority a strategy would require to be drawn up to deal with the loss of funding.  No indications had yet been provided on how the redistribution would affect Denbighshire’s funding, there was potential for the redistribution of funding to work in Denbighshire’s favour; 

·         advised the Revenues and Benefits Service operated a Discretionary Housing Grant (DHG) which families could apply for to help them for example to secure a tenancy agreement.  Payment of this one-off payment would be cheaper than supporting a family in temporary accommodation and would benefit their well-being;

·         confirmed the amount the Council paid for temporary bed and breakfast accommodation varied, it was dependent upon the type of accommodation, the size of unit required for the family, the time of year it was required etc.  The Council negotiated the rates with the business owner.  In some cases, caravans were used as temporary accommodation as they were better suited to keep a family together rather than rooms in hotels or guest houses;

·         advised during 2018/19 the Council paid £1.2 million for temporary accommodation for people presenting as homeless.  The Authority acknowledged that this was unsustainable in the medium to long-term and was, therefore, exploring options with the assistance of the Economic Regeneration Team for providing some temporary housing solutions in-house i.e. the development of temporary emergency accommodation centres or pods and supported housing units.  The aim was to develop a suite of small sized options, as a ‘one-size fits all’ solution would not work;  

·         agreed the average length of time people spent in temporary accommodation, currently 56 days, was unacceptable.  However, the reason for this was the lack of suitable properties available to re-house them;

·         confirmed if people presenting themselves as homeless could not prove a local connection to the area they would be advised and supported to return to their home area as long as there were no concerns for their safety if they did so.  The Council would attempt to establish temporary accommodation provision for them in the area from which they originated and advise the relevant local authority of the situation;

·         advised if a Council tenant was in arrears with their rent the Homelessness Prevention Team would work closely with the Council’s Housing Service with a view to ensuring that the tenant would not be evicted and to attempt to devise solutions to secure the tenancy in the long-term;

·         confirmed one RSL operating within Denbighshire had adopted a no eviction policy on health and housing grounds.  This particular RSL was exploring whether ‘tenancy holidays’ could be granted if tenants were in hospital or cared for elsewhere on a temporary basis;

·         advised the community also had a role to play in supporting vulnerable residents and those at risk of losing their homes;

·         currently there were no citizens being accommodated in Denbighshire from Conwy and Flintshire, however, there were some Denbighshire residents being accommodated in Conwy and Flintshire.  Local authorities notified each other if they were accommodating their citizens in temporary emergency accommodation in a neighbouring authority;

·         advised the aim of the Regional Collaborative Committee was to draw up the Regional Homelessness Strategy with a view to reducing homelessness across North Wales through sharing best practice and developing shared services where possible, thus ensuring maximum benefits were realised from the SP funding available;  

·         advised the Service made every effort to support people requiring assistance outside of their base at Russell House, Rhyl.  The Service funded an officer based at the Job Centre in Rhyl with a view to delivering early intervention services from that location.  It was also currently exploring options for basing a team within the community, possibly in conjunction with Citizens Advice Denbighshire (CAD); and

·         confirmed specialist temporary accommodation were only accessed when specific needs were identified for those requiring accommodation.  Individuals and families may be housed in these types of accommodation for longer periods than in ordinary temporary accommodation  

 

Committee members agreed with the Lead Member and officers that adopting a proactive, early intervention corporate approach was a prudent way to address homelessness issues in the county. Managing people’s expectations of the Service and the Council was also key.

 

Prior to concluding the discussion, the Committee requested that the Council’s Customers, Communication and Marketing Service issue a press release/social media information clarifying the definition of homeless and homelessness with a view to educating the public in relation to the matter.  Members also raised concerns with respect of the potential impact on the Council and service provision for residents if the redistribution of SP Housing Support Grant was unfavourable for the Authority.  The Corporate Director reassured members that he, the Lead Member and other senior officers were always willing to discuss any concerns they had with them.

 

Following and in-depth discussion the Committee:

 

RESOLVED that subject to the above observations and the issuing of press/media statement:

(i)                  to support the new corporate approach to dealing with homelessness via the Strategic Housing and Homeless Group;

(ii)                to support the new draft Corporate Homelessness Action Plan;

(iii)               to support the aims of the restructure of the Homelessness Prevention Team; and

(iv)               that a report on the progress made in dealing with homelessness is reported back to the Committee in 12 months’ time.