To seek approval on therecommendations for three housing related support service contracts, currently delivered by Home Group (Stonham), to be re-commissioned by tender.

1.     The three contracts have been individually reviewed. The services provide accommodation based and floating housing related support to vulnerable people who are homeless or at risk of homeless to enable them to secure, maintain and sustain tenancies/accommodation, live independently and develop skills to prevent them from re-entering the services.

2.     The services provide positive outcome for individuals by reduce demand on temporary accommodation and the need for B&B, whilst working towards sustaining and maintaining tenancies/accommodation and to prevent homelessness where possible, in line with corporate aims and objectives.

3.     There is a continued need for the services, which form an integral part of the Single Person Homeless Pathway, supported by the Governments “No Second Night Out” policy. [1]. 

4.     Without the services being provided, there would be a high need to provide B&B which would place a burden upon revenue budgets. Clients can only be placed into B&B for a maximum of 6 weeks, after which point they could need to be placed into temporary accommodation, which is very limited and disruptive to the vulnerable client group.

5.     There would be an increase in the number of rough sleepers without the services being available, which does not meet the “No Second Night Out” policy Herefordshire Council have signed to. 

6.     There are also wider community considerations and resource savings such as reductions in re-offending (Police and Probation), reductions in hospital admissions and incidents of anti-social behaviour.

1.     The services are decommissioned; this option is not recommended as the services are supporting vulnerable people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with substance and/or alcohol misuse, offending behaviour and/or mental health issues. The impact of not providing the housing related support service will be an increase in rough sleepers and homeless application, increase in demand for temporary accommodation or B&B, potential increase in offending, hospital admissions and antisocial behaviour. This will create a pressure on resource within the Housing Solutions Team, increase demand on Probation services, Police, hospitals, creates a financial burden on budgets and wider community impact.

2.     The accommodation based support services could again, be re-commissioned separately; this option is not recommended as there have been notable benefits from both the accommodation based support being delivered by the same provider. There are very strong links between the client groups which has enabled movement between the accommodation, to access the service sooner, reducing the waiting list and the demand on temporary accommodation as well as providing continuity of service.