To review the consultation draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2024 – 2030 and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

(Note: presented by Tara Harris, Divisional Director Community and Customer Services, Torbay Council; Lianne Hancock, Head of Housing Needs, Torbay Council and Dave Parsons, Strategic Lead for Community Protection, Torbay Council).

The Divisional Director of Community and Customer Services, the Head of Service for Safeguarding, Early Help and Business Intelligence and the Strategic Lead for Community Protection, Torbay Council provided Members with an outline and overview of the draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2024 – 2030.

Members were reminded that the Homelessness Act 2022 required local housing authorities to take strategic responsibility for tackling and preventing homelessness.  The draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2024 – 2030 set out the framework of what needed to be achieved and why.  It linked in with other strategies and areas of work so would have an impact on the wider system.

An evidence based document had been produced and engagement sessions had been held in April – June 2024 which concentrated around:

• rough sleeping including hidden homelessness;
• young people affected by homelessness;
• homelessness that impacted the wider population;
• overall session with elected members; and
• a series of structured conversation which included hearing the voice of those that have lived experiences.

Members were informed that the draft Strategy was out for consultation until the end of August 2024, following which there would be a review of the document and development of the action plan.  This would then be submitted through the relevant governance structures for approval.

The priorities concentrated upon increasing early help and prevention, intervention and better outcomes, better lives which involved supporting people independently, particularly those with complex needs, assisting with quality of lives which in turn would enable people to create a home.

Members acknowledged that the key objective of the Strategy was to provide the right advice at the right time and provide targeted prevention to reach people whose homelessness was hidden from services and to reduce repeat homelessness, rough sleeping and youth homelessness.  The main reason for homelessness in Torbay was loss of private rented accommodation, this was due to various factors around stability and affordability.

Members asked questions around how much support was provided by other services, for example, upon prison release and whether such groups had been consulted; why, during the pandemic, there was no-one sleeping on the streets and what had been done differently to achieve that; whether there was engagement with schools already in terms of education and prevention; whether the report data timeline could be widened to provide a clearer view of the overall issues against priorities; whether key data could be provided over the last five years, broken down into specific areas to show where there had been intervention, so that the data could inform actions going forward; how performance against the priorities and objectives of the Strategy would be measured; what were the numbers in respect of those individuals who refused to accept support; how did Torbay compare with other seaside towns; what the intention was in terms of working with the voluntary sector; how would feedback be measured and how would that influence the Strategy; and how would it be possible to bring together local charities to tackle the situation.

In response Members were informed that all homelessness has a far and wide reaching impact on other services and organisations.  There were ongoing dialogues, for example, with Mental Health Services and the Probation Service.

There was currently an officer who provided that link between an individual’s prison release date, planning for release and accommodation.  The ability to plan was becoming more difficult because of an increase in early release dates.  During Covid-19 there was a clear direction from Central Government to protect health and place everyone into temporary accommodation which was provided under very challenging circumstances with the use of B&B’s and hotels, for example.  This was a short term situation enacted by government and not sustainable in the longer term.  This has now changed and the ability to source accommodation has become increasingly challenging. In terms of education and prevention, work was already underway, working with young people and families who could be at risk and developing independent living skills.  There were challenges around affordability and suitable accommodation for families being available.  There was a rise in seeing working parents seeking assistance because they could not afford the rise in private rents and this had created a different type of family referral with the potential for family breakdown, children in need and/or increase in the need for child protection.  Members were informed that when families were placed in temporary accommodation, children often were displaced from school and this was disruptive to their education and overall development. Significant work had been undertaken to mitigate this.

Members were informed that as part of the Strategy implementation there would be clear key performance indicators to measure intervention against impact.  It had to be recognised that there could be external influences as well and that the impact of any intervention would not always be felt immediately.   

Accommodation and support needed to be appropriate and as part of the assistance, Council officers engaged with services in a preparatory way and needed to work with landlords in order to provide assurance, for example providing some finance in setting up tenancies.  It was acknowledged that there were ongoing efforts to assist each person that needed help and support and that there were some people who would choose to be in an area such as Torbay, so that created more of a flow of people.  Members welcomed the fact that the Hostel was being purchased and services were back ‘in house’ so that there was control over help, stabilisation and moving on.  There was work underway with landlords particularly in terms of maintaining quality of accommodation. 

In the development of the Strategy, in terms of co-design work, there was a lot of alliance work taking place which included hostels, domestic abuse and drug and alcohol services.

Members heard that different organisations operated within the rough sleeping sector and that Council officers liaised with them.  There was co-ordination in terms of supported efforts and weekly multi-agency meetings where individuals might be discussed.  This ensured that work was not duplicated and that complementary help was available.  It was very much focussed around housing and safeguarding.

Councillor David Thomas spoke under Standing Order B.4 and highlighted that coastal towns had a significant additional challenge as compared to land locked towns and asked whether there were any figures to show how Torbay compared with other coastal towns and that he believed Torbay should be represented on the Coastal Towns Group.

In response, it was confirmed that research had been undertaken on comparators especially in relation to the housing provsion in Torbay to allow a coastal and housing provision assessment. It had been difficult to find similar comparators, however, research was being undertaken in respect of other coastal towns to see which could be the best comparator.  Meetings occurred regularly with six other Local Authorities where experience and details on trends and flows were exchanged, so the evidence base was well informed.

Members acknowledged the good work that was already happening and it was recognised that homelessness was far more complex and was not an issue that could be resolved entirely by placing people into accommodation.

Resolved (unanimously):

That the Cabinet be advised that the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board supports the Draft Homelessness Strategy 2024 – 2030 being included within the Council’s Policy Framework and that the Cabinet be recommended that:

1.         a key data table with clear key performance indicators be included within the Action Plan, to measure performance of the Strategy and          impact, including details of external influences.