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Strategy aims to prevent
homelessness
A new strategy to be adopted by
Liverpool City Council is emphasising the need to prevent people from becoming
homeless. The strategy sets out how the Council and its partners intend to
prevent and reduce homelessness between 2016 and 2020. It has been developed
after a comprehensive review in which more than 100 people who are homeless or
potentially homeless were consulted along with many agencies who are involved in
this issue.
There are indications that risk of
homelessness in the City is increasing with a 26% rise in the number of people,
who face homelessness, contacting the Council's Housing Options Service during
the last 5 years. During 2015/16, 5838 households at risk of homelessness
contacted the Council for help and advice. However the number of people assessed
as statutorily homeless decreased from 610 in 201/11 to 271 in 2014/15
reflecting the significant success in preventing the number of people from
becoming homeless with the number of interventions increasing from 999 to 1852
during this time.
There is still more scope to prevent people from becoming homeless with evidence
that single people in particular do not seek advice to prevent homelessness and
may end up in temporary accommodation.
A major recommendation of the strategy is to make use of new powers which allows
Councils to make offers of housing in the private rented sector to homeless
people. Previously they had only been able to offer homeless people offers of
social housing or 6 month tenancies in private sector accommodation. This means
people are spending longer in temporary accommodation waiting for social housing
to become available.
Another priority in the strategy is to adopt an early prevention and
intervention approach towards single people and childless couples to limit the
time they currently spend in temporary accommodation. It also recognises the
Council's ongoing commitment to No Second Night Out for rough sleepers. And it
also says a range of measures should be used to address the situation of
homeless people who have complex needs. This includes learning from the Waves of
Hope project, a lottery-funded initiative which aims to transform the lives of
vulnerable people with multiple needs.
Councillor Frank Hont, cabinet member for housing, said:- "We are placing
the emphasis very much on preventing people from becoming homeless rather than
picking up the pieces when somebody has lost their home; it is clearly better
that, wherever possible, people remain in their own homes rather than having
disruption to their children's education, for example. And while we have been
successful in preventing homelessness in thousands of cases we recognise there
is always more we can do, especially at a time when the indications are that
homelessness is on the increase. However successful we are in stopping people
from becoming homeless there will always be those who lose their homes and we
are trying to ensure we have sufficient temporary accommodation of a good
standard available. I know there is a lot of concern about rough sleeping;
people see somebody sleeping in a shop doorway and assume they do so because
there is nowhere else for them to go. In fact, the vast majority of these people
have been offered temporary accommodation and have not accepted the offer; they
can have very complex needs and, along with our partners we are looking to adopt
a further range of measures to help them. We appreciate that the public
are concerned about homelessness and therefore we will be introducing a new
Homeless Forum for anyone who is interested in the subject can attend to hear
about the work the Council and our partners are doing and ask questions or share
their views. The reasons why people become homeless are many and varied .This
strategy, which has been developed with the help of people, who have experienced
homelessness is a comprehensive review of the issue and sets out in detail how
we intend to prevent and reduce homelessness in the next few years." |
