Agenda item

To consider the following Homes related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 14 April:

•   Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Bob Lawton, Portfolio Holder for Homes.

The Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Health and Adult Social Care and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committees are invited to attend the meeting for consideration of this item.

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy - The Portfolio Holder for Homes presented a report, a copy of which was circulated to Board members and which appears as Appendix 'C' to these minutes in the Minute Book. The Lead Member for Homelessness was also present to present the report and respond to any questions from the Board. Issues raised in the subsequent discussion on this report included:

·     The positives of the strategy and action plan, working towards lower numbers of people rough sleeping and the great work of the Housing team.

·     Definition of homelessness, including access to accommodation abroad.

·     The numbers and gender of those rough sleeping, specific approach to women and younger homeless persons. The Lead member commented that this was a work in progress, and it may be good to look at this when moving forward.

·     Making the concept of dignity more prominent within the document and the use of the term rough sleeping. It was acknowledged that use of language was important, and this would be carefully considered.

·     The policy was flexible and could be adapted to best meet provision. Officers confirmed that the associated actions plan could be updated on an ongoing basis but the strategy itself would not necessarily need to be changed.

·     The information given to rough sleepers from hospitals, a smaller laminated booklet was more likely to be kept by homeless people. Suggested A&E’s should be included as partners. The St Mungo’s night shelter also gave out lots of information.

·     What could be done to help those who didn’t want to be helped. The Council aimed to be flexible and work with partners in assisting people who did not want to move into traditional housing due to complex situations, although the Council were getting better at accommodating people. There was a need to consider wider ideas about what we would consider a home in order to solve the problem.

·     The increase in families with children presenting as homeless. Cases involving children were very difficult. Projects providing temporary housing had to be paused. What the solutions were? There was a focus on upstream liaison with landlords and tenants and addressing issues with rent. There were also schemes to provide additional family hostels as an alternative to temporary B&B accommodation.

·     What was being done about promoting downsizing in order to free up additional housing stock where it is needed and to address empty homes. A full-time empty homes officer was being arranged which would assist with the housing supply. Seascape would also be borrowing to purchase empty homes to provide emergency accommodation for homelessness families. Work was also underway on encouraging people to downsize through the new allocations policy.

·     Homeless Reduction Board – private landlord representative. The Council had been in discussion with the National Residential Landlords Association and will follow up on this issue.

How the Council monitors homelessness and rough sleeping numbers. The Portfolio Holder suggested that in approximately 12 months they could report back on the issue to the Board. The Chairman advised that this would be noted in the Board’s Forward Plan.