Agenda item

The Committee will receive an update on the development of the Council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy. Members will be invited to comment on the priorities that have been identified.

Contributors:

Cllr Nick Naylor, Cabinet Member for Housing, Homelessness and Regulatory Services

Cllr Mark Winn, Deputy Cabinet Member for Homelessness

Nigel Dicker, Service Director – Housing and Regulatory Services

Michael Veryard, Head of Housing

The Chairman welcomed the Deputy Cabinet Member for Homelessness, Councillor Mark Winn, to the meeting and invited him to introduce the Strategy. The Homelessness Act 2002 required the Council to have a strategy and Buckinghamshire Council’s draft Strategy had been discussed at Cabinet 15 February 2022. A four-week public consultation, including notification to all Community Boards, would follow and amendments to the Strategy would be considered based on the comments. It would then be considered by Full Council in April.

The following main points were noted:

• Prior to the pandemic, there were 34 classified rough sleepers in Buckinghamshire; this had now been reduced to 7 with 4 of these having been offered accommodation.
• The ‘Everyone In’ scheme during the pandemic had given the outreach team the opportunity to engage with clients and assist on their journey to self-support in accommodation.
• In January 2022, the service carried out 28 interventions to prevent occurrences of rough sleeping.
• As well as Ardenham House, Aylesbury, there were two government funded support packages: the Next Step Accommodation Programme and the Rough Sleepers Accommodation Programme.
• The Next Step Accommodation Programme had nine completed units and seven further units had been acquired at Harrow Churches for ‘move on’ accommodation for former rough sleepers.
• The YMCA, Wycombe, had 11 units under development as part of the Rough Sleepers Accommodation Programme. The Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust (VAHT) would soon be opening seven units in Aylesbury.
• Support for mental health, training and employment opportunities would be available through projects.
• One of the challenges identified in the Strategy was relationship breakdown which was often linked to domestic abuse. Mental health and offending history were also contributory factors.
• In addition the Council was working to support young care leavers in securing and maintaining a tenancy.
• Early intervention was important and over 2,000 households had approached the service for advice and support in 2020/21. Of these, over 50% of eligible households had successfully been prevented from becoming homeless and around 30% were moved to alternative accommodation.
• The Deputy Cabinet Member outlined the six main priorities within the Strategy which underpinned the overall vision. Two themes crosscut the Strategy: making best use of resources and partnership working.

In response to questions from Select Committee Members, the following points were noted:

• The Deputy Cabinet Member would review follow up on information that had been submitted in response to a question raised in September 2021’s meeting.
• Benchmarking against other local authorities was difficult due to individual circumstances within each council area. The service would consider finding a suitable local authority that was comparable for benchmarking purposes in the Strategy.
• A Member briefing on the Strategy would be held in the next month and a Member training session was already scheduled. Members were encouraged to submit their feedback during these sessions.
• It was clarified that the 28 individuals assisted in January 2022 were at risk of becoming a rough sleeper. The 34 units in development were ‘move on’ accommodation for rough sleepers.
• Members of the Committee felt that they would benefit in receiving statistical data on homelessness and rough sleeping which would inform their comments when responding to the consultation. It was also noted that updates on this data would be necessary to monitor the issue. Additionally, clearer information on defined terminologies, waiting lists and successful preventions would be welcomed.

Action: N Dicker / M Veryard

• There was a detailed action plan and evidence base publicly available in the Cabinet papers on Tuesday 15 February. These papers would be included as part of the consultation.
• It was acknowledged that homelessness and rough sleeping was multi-faceted and that the council services needed to work together to reduce its likelihood. The Deputy Cabinet Member referenced the recent Ofsted report which recommended closer working with Children’s Services and this had been incorporated into the draft Strategy. Aspirations to provide more affordable housing in Buckinghamshire also underpinned the draft Strategy.
• Detailed work on the Bucks Home Choice Allocation Policy would be carried out this summer with engagement with Members and stakeholders. The policy had already been changed regarding care-leavers and the local connection requirement.
• The outreach service liaised with charities such as the Oasis Partnership, Wycombe Homelessness Connection and Aylesbury Homelessness Action Group (AHAG). Oxford Health also assisted with mental health. These organisations spoke to rough sleepers and homeless individuals to offer support and encourage the accommodation offer.
• The 11 units at YMCA and the 8 VAHT units had been embargoed by MHCLG which meant that the Council had not been able to discuss them publicly. The opening of the Bridge Court site, Desborough Road, had been scheduled to open last year but had been delayed due to Covid; the aim was to open these 58 units this spring.
• The Council had numerous methods of stopping homelessness such as offering support with rent arrears and providing financial advice. Each individual case was managed carefully due to differing circumstances.

The Chairman thanked the Deputy Cabinet Member and officers for attending.

 * ADDENDUM – Following the meeting, it was agreed that members of the Committee should feed in their comments on the strategy via the Member Briefing which was held on 21^st March as part of the consultation process, rather than revisiting the strategy at the April meeting.