Agenda item

The Homelessness Strategy Task Group was established by the Environment Select Committee on 6 November 2018. The initial aim of the Task Group was to help the Executive shape policy and provide input into a new Homeless Strategy, which will be considered by Cabinet on 17 September 2019 and Full Council on 15 October 2019.

The Task Group first met in December 2018 and concluded its activity in August 2019. The Committee will now receive the final report of the Task Group, along with a set of recommendations.

Cllr Graham Wright updated the committee on the work of the Homelessness Strategy Task Group.   The headline findings were; the centrality of rent arrears to evictions, the lack of one-bedroom homes, rurality and access to services and the labour market.

The Rough Sleeper Outreach Team had been found to have helped reduce rough sleeping by 52% and data from housing, benefits and council tax sources could, within legal limitations, be used to improve preventative processes.

The debate that followed addressed the needs of traveller communities, care leavers, people with SEND, the engagement of private landlords and housing associations, data protection limitations on data sharing and the need for consent, the complexity and compound nature of multiple needs that often lie underneath homelessness and the necessity of preventative approaches.

Cllr Oldrieve proposed amending Recommendation 5 to read ‘to establish a “prevention partnership”’, as opposed to ‘to consider establishing a “prevention partnership”. This was accepted by the Committee.

Resolved:

The Environment Select Committee endorsed the following recommendations of the Task Group.

That the Cabinet Member forCorporate Services, Heritage, Arts, Tourism, Housing and Environment implements the following recommendations:

1.    The Environment Select Committee welcomed the positive and proactive engagement from the Executive throughout this important review.

2.    In order to ensure that intervention takes place at the earliest possible stage and that vulnerable clients have the best chance of maintaining appropriate accommodation, to consider implementing a “Passport to Housing” scheme, whereby the following are undertaken:

a)    Internal Data Matching: those on welfare benefits, those who have Council Tax arrears and rent arrears have their details centralised. This information to then be discussed, so that all appropriate Council departments are aware of the individuals/households most at risk of homelessness; leading to a process of earlier intervention

b)   Wiltshire Council’s Departments, Wiltshire’s main Social Housing providers, private landlords and the third sector forge a partnership working arrangement, so that housing stock is better co-ordinated and different agencies become more aware and responsive to the needs of Wiltshire’s tenants.

3.    The council to consider all the ways of encouraging and supporting private landlords to rent their properties to those in receipt of welfare benefits and wider use of the ‘Discretionary Housing Payment’, in order to increase the housing options available to this group and reduce their vulnerability to homelessness.

4.    In order to ensure that Wiltshire Council can continue its positive work reducing homelessness in the county, to prioritise sustaining both the Emergency Accommodation provision (in each town where need has been proven) and Rough Sleeper Outreach Team for a significant period of time through, for example:

a)    Regularly recording data that evidences the need for, and impact of, the Emergency Accommodation provision and the Rough Sleeper Outreach Team

b)   Continually seeking funding opportunities to help maintain these services.

5.    In light of the Army Rebasing 2020 Scheme and to help manage the workload of Housing Options South, to establish a “prevention partnership” network with the Ministry of Defence and appropriate partners, which would enhance the housing support offered to those leaving the armed forces.

6.    For the Council’s homelessness webpages to be better publicised and more easily accessible from the Council’s homepage, so that those who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, can more easily remotely access the support and advice that they need.

7.    For the Environment Select Committee to consider a report in 12 months’ time, updating on how the Executive have implemented the recommendations set out above. (N.B. This report would only relate to recommendations that the Executive accepted, as detailed in the ‘Executive Response to the Homelessness Strategy Task Group’s final report’ – due to be received on 5 November 2019).