Agenda item

Chris Burgin, Director of Housing, Leicester City Council, will give a presentation setting out the increasing challenges of helping complex housing applicants and tenants, housing them and the need for Housing services and Health services to work together to ensure Health services pathways are accessible and timely for those people going through Homelessness and those complex and vulnerable people in Housing. 

Chris Burgin, Director of Housing, Leicester City Council, give a presentation setting out the increasing challenges of helping complex housing applicants and tenants, housing them and the need for Housing services and Health services to work together to ensure Health services pathways are accessible and timely for those people going through Homelessness and those complex and vulnerable people in Housing. 

During the presentation it was noted:-

·         There was increasing homelessness, there was a lack of suitable housing to meet challenging and more complex needs and the health and wellbeing of citizens was affected.

·         There was a lack of truly affordable housing and the low levels of house building since 1969 meant there was a lack of houses to meet demand. Less than 10% of private rented properties were not available to those on benefits.

·         People could be homeless if they had nowhere to stay and were living on the streets, they could also be considered homeless even if they had a roof over their head.

·         The homeless population had a life expectancy of 43 years. On average men and women who were homeless at or around the time of their death lived 31 years and 38 years fewer than the average.  Homelessness was associated with tri-morbidity, a combination of physical ill health with mental illness and drug or alcohol misuse.

·         Mental illness was a cause and a consequence of homelessness. 70% of homeless service users in England had mental health problems. Deliberate self-harm, including suicide, was 7 times higher than that of the general population. 

·         Homeless people were over-represented attenders in A&E. A homeless drug user admitted to hospital was 7 times more likely to die over the next 5 years than a housed drug user with the same medical problem. Without early intervention homeless children and young people were likely to enter such a cycle.

·         There were now over 5,000 people facing homelessness in Leicester.

·         A case study gave an outline of what impact a person with complex needs could have on neighbours and they ways in which the Tenancy Management and STAR services could help over a period of time.

·         The Housing Service had a strong offer of services, support and interventions to assist people suffering or threatened with homelessness.  The service’s motto was that one needed to sleep on the streets and whilst every effort was made to assist people, some didn’t accept help. There were over 200 people currently in temporary  accommodation.  It was known that people who were rough sleeping had frailty levels equivalent to an 89 year old.

·         The initiatives housing services were undertaking were fully outline in the presentation.

·         It was considered that housing and health services must commit to doing more together if the response to homelessness was to be to be successful, including joint financial support where health issues were concerned.

Following the presentation the Board Members commented that:-

·         There may need to create a Task and Finish Group to look at the issues involved as homelessness affected all Board partners.

·         It was felt that the homeless were a group of people that the system was systematically failing, especially those complex needs living street lifestyle supported by crime and drug issues. 

·         Leicester was seen nationally as being ahead compared to others in providing joined up homeless services and was often used as an example of good practice.

·         The homelessness strategy and charter had been effective and there was a need to have a flexible approach with elements of variety.  The  Floral Lodge offer helped those with acute needs and who wanted to change.   It was felt that in some instances that if the system failed them then it would have failed it its last opportunity to provide help.

·         Many homelessness had low faith in the system.  If they had been recognised as being neurodiverse at an early stage then they may not have been where they are now. 

·         There should be a multi sector approach and the Task and finish Group was supported to look at solutions to take between all partners as it impacted upon all Board members services.

·         UHL were looking at the A & E attendance by this group of people with  LPT and others.  It was flet that the underpinning issue was around prevention and there was a need to build a structure that worked towards prevention.  It was important to attract the attention of key stakeholders in this issue.

·         Cathy Ellis commented that LPT picked up on a lot of people from drop ins etc and they welcomed the work on reconfiguring the Dawn Centre and were happy to help if they could.

·         Ivan Browne commented that he had been to St Mungos before covid when he took up the issues from the director of Housing.  It was clear that not one single organisation could get to a place where the whole system needed to be at in order to response to the needs of the homelessness and it was important there was a collaborate and partnership working to achieve this.

·         Andy Williams commented that there was an opportunity to submit bids to the ICB in order to have weight as partnership and were happy to work with the Director of Housing on that.  The ICM were also looking at their plan for next year, so it was now appropriate to look at these issues to see what improvements and benefits there would be and if makes financial sense to allocate money to where it needs to be.

The Chair stated that she saw this as important issue for the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Board had an important role to play because of importance of place.  This was one of the top priorities in our strategy and the need for a Task and Finish Group would be raised at a future meeting.  It was not necessarily about having more money but what was done collectively to work together to maximise resources.

AGREED:-     That the Director of Housing be thanked for his informative presentation and all Board members commit to working in partnership to address the issues involved in dealing with the homelessness and tenants with complex needs.