Agenda item

Report of the Housing Services Manager

The Committee gave consideration to the report (at pages 30 - 33) as delivered and summarised by the Interim Head of Community Services which should be read together with these minutes as a composite document.

The Committee was verbally updated regarding the latest statistics in respect of the number of households in temporary accommodation since the publication of the report. This was reported to have increased from 14 to 21 households, of which included use of nine of the Council’s own social-rented properties which, as a result, were now not available to let to applicants currently waiting on the Housing Register.

General Homelessness in the Borough

The Committee acknowledged with notable concern the worsening situation and exposure to the risk of homelessness that an increasing number of individuals and households were finding themselves in through, more often than not, no fault of their own. Members equally expressed discomfort regarding the knock-on effects homelessness was having, and may continue to have, on the already stretched availability of suitable housing stock, the number of people waiting to be rehoused and the potential manipulation of the waiting list for Council-owned properties.

Officers advised that such concerns were to be managed and mitigated by carefully assessing applicants’ needs and awarding the most suitable type of accommodation available. It was said that, although there was scope for some manipulation , the Housing Options section were able to competently evaluate whether or not individuals had made themselves intentionally homeless and, therefore, nullifying any entitlement to longer-term housing save for those deemed to be in priority need.

The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA)

The Committee shared Officers concerns regarding the additional workload at the point of contact, in assessments and administration etc. to be delivered within the finite resources made available once the HRA came into effect. Whilst Members found the proactive objective of the HRA to be laudable, it was considered that, in reality, the evitable response was to be more reactive in the short-to-medium term, resulting in the temporary accommodation of more people for longer periods of time.        

Members were advised that more temporary accommodation units were being acquired, including the forthcoming provision of the Council’s own facility on Station Road in Wigston and that, in the long term, all available options to address the root causes of homelessness were being scoped out. This was said to involve partnership work with registered social housing providers in securing full nomination rights and re-letting opportunities and the bringing-forward of development of social and affordable market-rent housing by the Council’s Wholly Owned Housing Company.

In summary, Members and Officers were confident in being able to realise the Council’s action plan to fulfil its new statutory duties under the HRA, part of which was to include a review of its Housing Strategy Statement for the period 2018-2023 due to be first considered at the Place Shaping Working Group meeting on 24 January. It was announced that a further information seminar for Members regarding the requirements and the impact of the HRA had been arranged for 30 January.

Other Homelessness Matters

In respect of rough sleepers, it was confirmed that, in liaison with the local neighbourhood police team and Community Safety Partnership Board, the situation in the Borough was being monitored and all known affected individuals had been approached and signposted to the relevant help schemes accordingly.

By affirmation of the meeting, it was

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED THAT:

The contents of the report be noted by Members.