Agenda item

The Head of Development and Housing to provide a verbal update at the meeting, based on the slides attached to this agenda, on temporary accommodation - reviewing the process of how we deal with homelessness and our property options available.

Roger Cox, Cabinet member for Housing and Debbie Taylor, Head of Development and Housing attended the committee to present this item for scrutiny and to answer questions.

Introduction to homelessness and prevention work

The council has a duty to house people if they meet the following five tests:

·        Are homeless or will become homeless within 28 days.

·        Are eligible (have recourse to public funds).

·        Are in “priority need” (children, people with children, pregnant, former cared for children, or those who are vulnerable).

·        Are not “intentionally homeless”.

·        Have a local connection to the area.

When a household is threatened with homelessness an applicant can choose to make a homeless application to the council.  If the council believes the household is eligible, homeless and in priority need, it has a duty to provide temporary accommodation pending completion of its assessment.  This temporary accommodation currently takes the form of a hostel or B&B, and this is referred to as Stage 1.

Should a full Statutory Homeless duty be established, then the council has a duty to secure accommodation which is available for occupation by the applicant and their household. It takes time to find permanent accommodation  and therefore applicants are placed in interim accommodation until permanent becomes available and this is referred to this as Stage 2. Some households can be dealt with through rapid assessment and they can escalate straight into Stage 2; they are accommodated in temporary accommodation which takes the form of either bed & breakfast/ hotel accommodation; stock owned by the council; or certain housing association properties that are designated as temporary accommodation.

The council has improved its homelessness prevention work. Following the Localism Act of 2011 it may also discharge its duty to house to the private rented sector.

Since 2011/12 the council has become more rigorous in its assessment of households presenting as homeless: a reduction in the proportion of applicants accepted as homeless from 85 percent of applicants to 65 percent. One of the consequences of this more rigorous approach is that more applicants are temporarily accommodated in more expensive nightly charged accommodation where there is no security of tenure, to allow officers to assess eligibility and housing need. If the council does not have a duty to house applicants, it still has a duty to accommodate for up to 28 days while assisting them to find alternative accommodation.

Homelessness prevention officers work extensively with households who the council does not have a legal duty to house: assisting them either into private rented accommodation, or enabling them to stay in current accommodation or looking at “in family” solutions.

One of the beneficial results of fewer homelessness acceptances and improved homelessness prevention work is that local people on the council’s waiting lists are more likely to be successful in bidding for properties as they are not being displaced by homeless households.

Costs

·        There are a number of reasons why costs are high. However, the figure for Quarter 1 of 2014/15 for stage 1 accommodation was only £17,807, not £47,570, so it is expected that the end of year cost will be significantly less than last year.

·        There was a significantly high cost for one household with specific needs who had to be placed in specialist accommodation which could only be sourced out of district.

·        The council’s own stock has deteriorated over a period of time and more people have had to be housed in third party accommodation.

·        Costs of third party first stage accommodation have increased.

·        Although the cost of homelessness to the council seems high, a large proportion of the costs are paid from the housing benefit scheme.

Issues and solutions

·       There is an inadequate stock of suitable private rented accommodation in the district with landlords who will accept housing benefit. The council has its own deposit guarantee scheme which can help some applicants on housing benefit into private rented accommodation.

·       The housing team are developing greater efficiency in moving people on from second stage temporary accommodation to permanent housing.

·       The housing team are currently reviewing the Homelessness Strategy which will be brought to the Scrutiny Committee, for consideration, in 2015 and a briefing session will be offered to all members during the consultation of the Strategy document in January.

·       The housing team are also reviewing the Temporary Accommodation Strategy which will be brought to the Scrutiny Committee for consideration in 2015.

Note: this item was brought to the committee to provide background and to inform members for better scrutiny of the two strategies referred to above. Therefore there were no actions arising, nor any recommendations to Cabinet at the present time.