Agenda item

The report outlined the District Councils statutory duty to adopt a Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy. This strategy set out the strategic goals for the four Somerset Housing Authorities including a detailed action plan to show how the strategy would be delivered. The existing Somerset Homeless Strategy was adopted in May 2018; this was an interim strategy which ran until December 2019 so the Council was updating the strategy taking into consideration the priorities identified in the Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Needs Assessment 2019, together with the new requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2019.

The purpose of the report was to enable Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise the content of the proposed Somerset Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy (and Action Plan) 2019-2023 (SH&RSS)

The 2002 Homelessness Act places a duty on Local Authorities to develop a homelessness and rough sleeper strategy and an obligation to renew it every five years. The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, introduced new measures for dealing with homelessness including:

·  Increasing the length of time a housing authority treated someone as threatened with Homelessness from 28 to 56 days

·  The introduction of Personalised Housing Plans for clients to outline the circumstances of homelessness, the housing needs of the client, any support required to secure and sustain accommodation, steps that the client was required to take along with the steps the Local Authority was required to take to assist the client

·  A new duty to prevent homelessness for all eligible households threatened with homelessness

·  a new duty to relieve homelessness for all eligible homeless applicants

·  a new duty on public services to notify a local authority if they came into contact with someone they think could be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless

The current interim strategy was developed by the four District Councils in Somerset and was adopted in 2018. Since the adoption of the Interim Strategy the Councils had collectively conducted a Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Needs Assessment which had been used as the evidence base for the ‘Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2019 – 2023’ as well as considering the new requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.

A Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Needs Assessment 2019 set out in Appendix 1 was carried out to assess the need within the county. This had been used to inform the new Somerset Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2019-23 detailed in Appendix 2. The strategy included 6 priorities for 2019-23:

·      Provision of adequate, affordable accommodation

·      The provision and effective use of temporary accommodation

·      Support the Government’s commitment to combat rough sleeping

·      Support prevention and early intervention

·      Enable specific client groups to access suitable accommodation

·      Maintain strong working relationships across partnerships

The SH&RSS would be implemented by each district through the Homelessness Managers Group (HMG) who would be responsible for the day to day delivery of this strategy and actions contained within the action plan; including monitoring progress against actions and targets at the monthly HMG meetings. There would also be a link with the Somerset Strategic Housing officers Group (SSHG) who were responsible for the delivery plan for the Somerset Housing Strategy 2019-2023, close links would be maintained between both groups to ensure The Council kept track of progress on actions overall.

Debate

·        The homelessness team were engaging with the Local Plan Review, along with the evidence to deliver different types of accommodation to address the need for housing for those with disabilities.

·        Insisting on increasing levels of affordable housing on developments was a key priority.

·        Consideration was given to more of the funding being received through the garden town initiative should be set aside to tackle homelessness.

·        More responsibility and obligation should be enforced with central government to tackle homelessness with members the ex-military community as part of the armed forces covenant. It was established that 56 former armed forces personnel had received help from housing services.

·        Young people had been impacted on the most with housing shortages alongside suffering an employment and skills shortage.

·        In a January survey it had been established that there had been 25 rough sleepers across the district.

·        Consultations with Ark and the voluntary sector had taken place to attain more information around the homeless community to generate policy to reduce numbers in the district and county,

·        Specifics around members of the homeless who could be experiencing trauma, addictions, and disabilities or living in the rural community along with addressing employment skills were a common theme across the community.

The Scrutiny Committee

1.        In principle supported the adoption of the SH&RSS, subject to

2.       Comments provided for consideration by the Executive (10^th February 2020) who would be asked to formally recommend the adoption of the Strategy to Full Council.