Agenda item

To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director Housing Operations, Roger Wilson took the Committee through the report reviewing the Council’s Homelessness Strategy. He was accompanied by Russell Wallace the Housing Options Manager.

He apologised that he had inadvertently referred to the Committee as the Housing Select Committee and not the Communities Select Committee in the report. It was noted that under the Homelessness Act 2002, Local Authorities had a duty to review and publish their Homelessness Strategy on at least a 5 yearly basis.  As this area of work regularly changes, it was agreed that the Council’s Homelessness Strategy would be reviewed every three years.

The Strategy linked with the Council’s Housing Strategy, Housing Allocations Scheme and Tenancy Policy.  The Strategy set out achievements since 2015 and incorporated the needs and demands on the service and actions that need to be undertaken over the coming three years.      

Importantly, following the new duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 which came into force on 3 April 2018, some major changes had been made under this review.  The changes were briefly summarised as follows:

• The period that a person could be considered to be threatened with homelessness or it is likely that they will become homeless was extended from 28 days to 56 days;
• An applicant was threatened with homelessness at the point the Section 21 Notice (which was the standard notice period provided by private landlords to tenants and was recognised as the single biggest cause of homelessness), had been served as opposed to at the end of the notice period, also preventing councils to advise applicants to remain in occupation beyond expiry;
• Placing an emphasis on services preventing homelessness from occurring strengthening the duties on local authorities to provide advice, securing accommodation and other help available;
• Ensuring services met the needs of groups at particular risk to reflect their complex needs and vulnerabilities;
• A duty to carry out an assessment of an applicant’s case notifying the applicant of the assessment in writing and the provision of a Personalised Housing Plan in order to provide effective support; 
• The applicant’s right to a Review of their Personalised Housing Plan; 

• The ending of the homelessness duty if the applicant “was unreasonably refusing to co-operate”;
• The requirement to secure accommodation (under the new “Relief Duty”) for at least 6 months for all applicants who the authority was satisfied were eligible for assistance; and
• The right to a Review of ending either the Prevention, Relief Duties or as a result of failing to co-operate.

The Housing Select Committee was asked to consider the Draft Homelessness Strategy and report any comments to the Housing Portfolio Holder.  A consultation exercise on the draft Homelessness Strategy would be undertaken over an 8 week period with all Stakeholders with an interest in homelessness including Town and Parish Councils. The Housing Portfolio Holder will be asked to consider the outcome of the exercise and any resultant changes and to adopt the revised Homelessness Strategy.  The Strategy would take effect from 1 September 2018.   

The Committee proceeded to go through the draft strategy section by section commenting as they went along.

Councillor Sunger asked if an applicant moved out before a court order was made were they considered as intentionally homeless. Mr Wilson said that each case must be judged on its merits and explained the problems of matching evidential statements on homeless decisions.

Councillor Heap asked about applicants who were considered not to be homeless. He was advised that these were people who actually had somewhere to live and this had been ascertained by officers during their investigations.

Councillor Patel asked about the ethnicity of homeless applicants and if they were residents of the district or had they moved into our area. He was advised that they had to meet the homelessness residency test. Mr Wallace added that we also met the needs of domestic violence victims who may not have had a connection with the district. The ethnicity of applicants is set out in the strategy.

Councillor Whitehouse commented that she did not receive Housing News anymore. Mr Hall said that it is issued electronically although members should be receiving a hard copy twice a year, he would check this out.

Councillor Patel noted that there was a movement to become paperless, but a high number of residents did not have the facility and we should not forget them. He was advised that residents were given the choice of paperless or hardcopy for Housing News. Generally trying to keep it as paperless as possible.

Councillor Sunger asked about benefit claims that were stopped or reviewed, what sort of turn around time was there on this? Mr Wallace replied that Housing Benefits turnaround was 3 to 4 weeks. Officers were working with the ‘Peabody Charity’ who helped applicants apply; officers also offered assistance to help any urgent cases. Mr Wilson added that Housing Benefits also granted discretionary housing payments in appropriate cases. As for Council tenants in arrears we consider it a failure if we got to the eviction stage, by then we would have tried everything.

Councillor Heap noted that Housing Benefit was going and Universal Credit was taking over. This was causing a lot of problems and took a long time to start up. People had to manage their own finances. Could you help tenants who were in this bind and were waiting for their Universal Credit payments to start? Mr Wilson said that there were discretionary housing payments and a recently re-introduced preventing repossession fund which could assist people and prevent homelessness. Mr Wallace said that there were national problems with Universal Credit. The waiting time was 6 weeks and had now been reduced to 5 weeks. In September, Universal Credit would be rolled out in our district; although now payment could be paid directly to the Council from the Universal Credit payments for those with vulnerabilities.

From October 2018, certain public authorities in England will be required to notify the Council of any service users they consider may be homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days. The Council was now obliged to provide a personalised housing plan to provide a framework for the Council and the applicant to work together in a positive and collaborative way.

Councillor Heap asked how the homeless person kept any paperwork if they were homeless. He was told that officers could print up the paperwork and/or store it on their system for the applicant.

Mr Wilson noted that the Council was very successful at homelessness prevention. Councillor Hughes asked what ‘Crisis Intervention’ was? She was advised that this would be for example, someone with a mental health condition.

Councillor Stocker asked about the repayment of loans that we gave applicants under homelessness prevention. He was advised that the Council received government grants for this and that we gave the applicants interest free loans that could be paid back over 3 years. This money was then recycled and given out again as loans to other applicants.

Councillor Patel asked, after our initial intervention, what support did we provide. Mr Wilson said that we used Family Mosaic, the Trailblazers scheme and also had expert staff to act as advisors.

Under the Relief of Duty section, Mr Wilson added some extra wording to add to paragraph 1.1.

Councillor Heap asked why the Modular Accommodation was taking so long to progress. He was advised that we were waiting for Planning Permission and also a lot of underground services needed to be put in – all this was taking longer than first thought.

Councillor Whitehouse asked for more information on the revised housing allocations scheme and the 2 year fixed tenancies for homeless applicants. Mr Wilson explained that 2 year fixed term tenancies would be granted to homeless applicants in order to give them time to resolve their housing situation. This is in the same way as discharging and duty in the Private Rented Sector which is the practice of many authorities. This will ensure the best use of our housing stock and assist more applicants.

Councillor Hughes asked how long could the 2 year fixed term tenancy go on for. Mr Wilson said that they could not generalise, the council would always have a legal duty to help, provide advice and help people move on and if necessary provide a further tenancy.

Councillor Patel asked if we could use the same format for the action plan as was used by the transformation team. He was told that this was not just for internal consumption and was for the public to see. So it had to be in a different format to the transformation tables etc.

Councillor Patel then asked who looked at the target dates that were not reached. Mr Hall replied that these would come under the project dossier that the Committee could look at and consider later.

The Chairman asked about having a breakdown by age as it would be interesting to see the numbers of people under 25. She was told that the table on page 39 and 40 of the agenda were looking at key age groups.

She then asked if there was any data going back before 2015. She was advised that each strategy was for 3 years so the data was there if needed, but a three year picture was considered good enough for comparison purposes. She then asked if there had been any real changes over the years and was told that the statistics stayed pretty static. Mr Marshall said that if you sent too far back you would not be comparing like with like.

Councillor Whitehouse asked how the consultation on this strategy would be carried out. Mr Wilson pointed out that this was on page 70 of the agenda. We would be consulting partner agencies, this Select Committee and Town and Parish councils. Also our partner agencies and other agencies with an interest in homelessness; but not the general public as it was not a public consultation.

RESOLVED:

(1) That the Housing Select Committee considered and commented on the Draft Homelessness Strategy;

(2) That it was noted that a consultation exercise would be undertaken for a period of 8 weeks with all Stakeholders with an interest in homelessness including Town and Parish Councils, with the outcome of the exercise and any proposed changes being reported to the Housing Portfolio Holder for consideration when adopting the revised Homelessness Strategy; and

(3) That it was noted that the revised Homelessness Strategy would become effective on 1 September 2018.