Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director for Housing and Communities copy attached as item 8

The Committee had a report before it attached as item 8, which had been circulated to all Members and is attached to a signed copy of these minutes. The purpose of the report was to update the Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee on progress

made against the commitments in the Housing Strategy 2020-2023 ‘Enabling communities to thrive in their own home’

A Member asked, “What data, if any, do we hold on the number of care leavers requiring temporary and emergency accommodation and what support is in place for these young people?”

Members were informed that between 1/1/23 and 31/12/23, 24 care leavers presented as homeless to Worthing Borough Council, 18 of whom were placed in temporary accommodation.   

They were supported by WSCC Leaving Care Team and depending on need, may receive further support from support roles within the wider partnerships working with single homeless households. 

A Member asked, “The Council’s Housing Strategy: Enabling People to Thrive in their Own Homes strives to provide 'secure and appropriate housing for the residents of Adur'. How many of our suite of housing policies are still considerably out of date and what progress has been made?”

Members were informed it was anticipated that 2024 would see the implementation of a new Housing Strategy. This would not stand alone and most of the priorities and actions within it would operate alongside and support existing strategies, delivery plans and policies. In particular it would be guided by and contribute to policies and priorities outlined in both Adur and Worthing Local Plans and the corporate plan, Our Plan. 

As part of this implementation, all associated policies would be reviewed and aligned. These included Temporary Accommodation Placement and Procurement Policy and Community Homelessness Strategy. A number of changes within the service and wider council had impacted the ability to implement a revised set of strategies and policies as previously intended. They were now working through consultation planning in respect of the new strategy and associated policies. 

This would include extensive participation with key stakeholders, including those that supported priority groups. As part of this approach they would involve tenants and people with lived experience of homelessness plus other specific groups including: older people, young people, care leavers, carers, minority groups.

A Member asked, “Paragraph 6.0 "The number of individuals sleeping rough is rising. In part this is due to the Homeless Reduction Act." Interested to hear how this change in legislation is causing a rise in homelessness?”

Members were informed the Homeless Reduction Act reinforced a statutory duty on local authorities to take steps to relieve homelessness for all eligible households. The threshold to trigger a homeless application and consideration around priority need was reduced and moved the requirement for a local authority to accommodate if they have reason to believe a household “may '' be homeless and “may '' be in priority need. The previous threshold was far more evidence based. 

The Act added duties to prevent and relieve homelessness and previously many single person households would not have been eligible for this assistance as would not have been in priority need. The Act alongside PRS being both in short supply and unaffordable had resulted in the increase of numbers of people experiencing homelessness.

A Member asked “Paragraph 4.10  "Strong partnerships are essential for the Councils to the wider prevention and relief of homelessness."  

Do we have figures on outcomes of the council's partnership work?

Members were informed this was an area where it was difficult to quantify outcomes as it was contained within general prevention and relief data and the nature of some of this work was around preventing households having to present to the Council in the first instance.

The investment in partnerships had resulted in:

The Council developing and piloting of mental health inpatient housing needs assessment and Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust funded Mental Health Housing Advisor, being collocated and embedded with the Housing Needs Team

Co-location of x2 IDVA’s - Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors with the Housing Needs Team.

Hosting of the West Sussex County Council Substance Misuse Service which was a new provision.

Multi agency Rough Sleepers Team working on Personalised Housing Plans for single people rough sleeping, at risk of eviction of for those under Duty to Refer from the Criminal Justice System 

Clinical Psychologist Trainee starting with the team on 03.04.23

The Council was part of the Mental Health and Housing Strategic Group to deliver against the Mental Health and Housing Strategy.

The Council convened a strategic housing board and operational homelessness and rough sleeping prevention partnership. Both were made up of a number of statutory and voluntary sector partners involved in tackling homelessness and considering wider housing issues. 

A Member asked, “With significant rises across all groups in TA and now over 600 from Worthing, how is workforce capacity organised to ensure the health and wellbeing of these residents is being positively maintained?”

Members were informed that within the housing team structure there was a team of officers that provided both inreach support (to specific accommodation) and wider outreach support for households placed in temporary accommodation. This support covered a range of presenting issues including financial, securing accommodation, mediation and access to health and support networks to name a few. There was currently a vacancy within this team which they were actively recruiting to. 

Members also asked about the rise and numbers of rough sleepers and the shortage of support workers at Southdown. Members were informed that there was still a regular count of rough sleepers and that the Councils had no oversight of Southdown but were kept informed and supported partners where possible.

Resolved:

The Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee

• Noted the progress made in the last 12 months and;
• The Department for Levelling Up Communities and Housing (DLUCH) funding update, subject to receiving updated numbers on rough sleeping and information regarding outcomes for working partnerships