To review the council’s approaches to avoidance of homelessness, and the local impact of the homelessness reduction duty, mental health, and universal credit.

The head of prevention and support gave presentations on the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (appendix 1) and on Universal Credit, mental health and vulnerable people (appendix 2).  The key points of the presentations and questions arising are summarised below.

Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

a.       The key legislation was contained in the Housing Act 1996, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (HRA) amended Part VII of this legislation and came into effect in April 2018.

b.       The HRA placed increased statutory duties on local housing authorities to prevent homelessness and, if that duty fails, to relieve homelessness, including: the provision of a personal housing plan for every client and undertaking reviews at each stage; the provision of temporary accommodation at the prevention stage for a minimum of 56 days; earlier intervention to prevent homelessness; a new relief duty to provide assistance when preventions fail prior to homelessness; a new ‘duty to refer’ on other public services working with people who were at risk of homelessness or were homeless, albeit this duty did not apply to the police; and increased rights for clients to seek reviews of the council’s decisions.

In response to a question, the team leader housing solutions clarified that anyone who presented to a local authority who was at risk of homelessness would need to be provided with temporary accommodation and the local authority would have to meet the financial burden; previously a local connection had to be demonstrated.

c.       The duty to provide continued temporary accommodation protection for families had been extend from 28 days to 56 days, increasing the financial burden and placing pressures on the available temporary accommodation; the council had recently increased its provision from 41 to 45 places.  This additional burden was also reflected in increased use of bed and breakfast accommodation in Herefordshire; there had been five successive months of double figure placements in the period before Christmas 2018.  The housing solutions team were working with local landlords and with the housing strategy lead to secure additional accommodation and a wider range of housing types.

In response to questions, the team leader housing solutions advised: temporary accommodation provision was mainly in Hereford but there were units in Leominster and Ross, with some bed and breakfast accommodation was used in the market towns; and, if the authority had a statutory duty, 56 days was a minimum and clients would continue in temporary accommodation until suitable permanent accommodation could be found.

d.       The HRA had increased workload for the housing solutions teams, metrics included: the average allocation of cases had increased to over 20 per day; footfall into the service had increased by 59%; there had been 9884 presentations in the last twelve months; and the current caseload was 562 people.

e.       The rough sleeping outreach service currently identified 12 rough sleepers, mostly in Hereford but also in Ross and in other rural areas.  The service continued to provide support to 50 people, who had been rough sleeping previously, to help them sustain the accommodation secured and to access other services and financial support.  It was reported that there had been a successful bid for funding to support winter shelter provision and elements of the outreach service in 2019/20.

In response to questions about places for rough sleepers, it was reported that: on average eight rough sleepers used the St Peter’s winter shelter per night but other people also accessed that service; some landlords would accept people who had been rough sleeping subject to the outreach service being in place; and some people were referred to hostels or were accommodated out of county.

f.       Associated with the increased statutory duties, there were new reporting procedures to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for local authorities.  It was anticipated that benchmark information may become available from June 2019.

In response to questions, the team leader housing solutions advised: the authority often became aware of people who were living in overcrowded accommodation or were ‘sofa surfing’ once they registered for social housing or through third parties; and the authority had specialist officers to support the accommodation needs of victims of domestic abuse.

Universal Credit

g.       Universal Credit replaced six previous benefits and had been implemented fully in Herefordshire from June 2018 for all new claimants.

In response to a question, the team leader housing solutions confirmed that recipients could still request the housing element to be paid directly to the landlord but this had to be supported by a business case.

h.       The risks for housing providers were outlined, such as delays in payment, and this had resulted in some risk adverse landlords refusing to take benefit claimants and registered social landlords requesting full affordability assessments and up-front rent payments.

In response to questions, it was reported that: the trailblazer authorities had identified that the HRA would result in additional demands and burdens; and the council had received additional funding, of £155k over three years, but there was no indication that this would continue beyond March 2020.

Mental health

i.        It was stated that people with poor mental health were more susceptible to factors that can lead homelessness such as poverty, disaffiliation and personal vulnerability; Herefordshire’s draft homeless link health needs audit showed that 76% of respondents reported a mental health problem / behaviour condition.

j.        An overview was provided of the current specialist targeted provision for homeless people with mental health needs and provision in the development pipeline.

Vulnerable groups

k.       It was emphasised that vulnerable groups included a wide range of people.  In particular, it was noted that an operational protocol had been developed for care leavers.

In response to questions, the committee was advised that: not everyone perceived by the public to be part of the street community was homeless; the outreach service had not been made aware that any of the current rough sleepers in Herefordshire had an armed forces background; and the Ministry of Defence did not notify the local authority of leavers who were at risk of homelessness.  A committee member felt that the mental health needs of former armed services personnel and of farmers needed greater attention.

Jade Brooks made a number of points, including: the CCG and the local authority maintained a register of all those in secure hospital provision and were involved in discharge planning; she was disappointed with some of the terminology used and assumptions made in the slide on mental health; and, whilst there were significant mental ill-health issues in the county, many homeless people were receiving ongoing support from the assertive outreach team and further measures were being implemented to remove barriers to healthcare.

The head of prevention and support said that a critical point was that the provision of accommodation had to be sustainable, as losing accommodation not only had an impact on the tenants’ prospects but also on the attitudes of landlords.

The team leader housing solutions said that, whilst the HRA had resulted in significant additional burden, a recent audit by the MHCLG had recognised the positive outcomes being achieved by the authority, including higher levels of prevention and reduced numbers of homelessness; the final report was awaited.

In response to a question, the team leader housing solutions said that the rough sleeping outreach service visited every market town regularly and discussed issues with local partners.  The challenges for those people at risk of homelessness in rural areas were recognised and the team worked with landlords to extend provision until appropriate accommodation could be found.  The head of prevention and support noted that there was a mismatch between demand and supply in terms of social housing in different parts of the county.

In response to a question from the chairperson about the potential cessation of the additional funding in March 2020, the head of prevention and support said that the service had to be structured appropriately and would continue to be proactive in seeking grant funding for different types of homelessness prevention.

The director of public health said that the complexity of this area of work should not be underestimated and that partner agencies needed to keep working together to address inequalities.

The chairperson welcomed the report and invited officers to provide a briefing paper on the benchmark information once it became available.

Resolved: That

a.       The report be noted; and

b.      A briefing paper on benchmark information in relation to the prevention and relief of homelessness be circulated to committee members in due course.