Agenda item

The Director of Housing submits a presentation to the Scrutiny Commission on the ongoing work to implement to the Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 since the last report to Housing Scrutiny in November 2018.

The Director of Housing submitted a presentation for noting to the Commission on the ongoing work to implement the Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 since the last report to the Commission in November 2018.

Caroline Carpendale, Head of Service, delivered the presentation, and the following additional points made:

·         There is a legal duty to produce a Homelessness Strategy every five years.

·         The strategy was a public, working document, and regularly reviewed to fill gaps and confirm progress. It included a set of actions, objectives and action plan. A smaller presentation would be arranged to be delivered to new Members of the Commission on the Homelessness Strategy.

·         One of the priorities within the action plan was to increase partnership working and a Homelessness Charter was launched with partners in October last year.

·         A re-directed giving scheme was to be launched in the city scheme to enable the public to donate to specific themes around homelessness. The Charter also provides information about the many services available to homeless people.

·         Another strand of homeless prevention looked to help those who were facing homelessness and there was also the provision of an emergency duty team for those who were homeless and out of hours services.

·         The My Home (Housing Options Made Easy) app was now interactive and details steps to assist people facing homelessness, available for Android and Apple devices.

·         The Homeless Reduction Act 2017 had been implemented successfully, including the duty to refer. Additional homeless prevention officers had been recruited.

·         The service was seeing more families, through the termination of assured shorthold tenancies. Landlords are nervous around UC, and a Landlord Forum was held recently to try and look at putting different incentives in place, for example, Home Come – where the Council lease property from landlords for a fixed term. The Council was looking at incentives for landlords to reassure them of rent payment, to try and stop notices being served.

·         There were currently four families in B&B. Families were moved out as quickly as possible into temporary accommodation, and Leicester worked hard to not have any families in B&B for more than six weeks which was the government target. The objective was to have no families in temporary accommodation but move on was an issue due to the number of families requiring accommodation and the lack of homes available.

·         The duty to prevent homelessness in singles was as important as families. There we 14 available spaces in the Safe Space at Andover Street. Another Safe Space in the city was being considered.

·         The Dawn Centre had 45 bed spaces and was a multi-disciplinary centre, including health teams.

·         There were 30 units for offenders, which had high-level support, as well as lower level, step down accommodation. Surgeries were held at Leicester Prison for planned discharges into units.

·         The new single person service offer was ready to procure. It was recognised that one size did not fit all, and different types of accommodation for different, sometimes complex needs was needed.

·         As part of being a corporate parent, the service was working with Children’s Service to jointly commission accommodation-based support for young people aged 16-25 years. Information on progress would be brought to a future meeting of the Commission.

·         Under housing-related support, a transitions worker would stay with a homeless individual from the beginning through to the end.

·         £350k funding for rough sleepers had been confirmed and would enable 20 additional hostel beds and staff support. A further £211k would fund Rough Sleep Navigators work with local charities.

·         Day centres would be reviewed to remove duplication. It was noted that a person did not have to be homeless to go to day centres. Surgeries would be taken to No.5 centre.

·         When managing narrative, the team worked hard with the press team to release good news stories. In relation to rough sleeping and street lifestyles in the city centre, most were known by name and their individual problems, and most were not homeless but supporting their addictions.

·          Regular rough sleeping counts were carried out 2.00am – 5.00am. The city had seen an increase in street lifestyle numbers. It was noted that someone who was entrenched in a street lifestyle and substance use often found it difficult to move on from this lifestyle. Information from the Street Lifestyle groups would be included in a future report to the Commission. Commission Members were invited the street counts if this was something that they would be interested in taking part in.

·         It was further noted that there appeared to be a lot of people with a drug addiction issues living n Vestry House, where it was reported that conditions were bad. The Director of Housing stated he had met with the owners and discussed the challenges. It was suggested there was more that registered providers could do in the city. A breakdown of stock in the city with registered providers would be shared with the Commission Members.

The Chair thanked the officer for the presentation and information provided.

AGREED:

That:

1.    the presentation be noted.

2.    a smaller presentation on the Homelessness Strategy would be arranged for new Members of the Commission.

3.    information on street lifestyle numbers to be included in a future report to the Commission.

4.    the Scrutiny Policy Officer would liaise with Members to attend a street count.

5.    a breakdown of stock in the city with registered providers would to be shared Commission Members.