Councillor Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development), (Matt Garrett Service Director for Community Connections) and John Hamblin (Shekinah) presented the Homeless Overview to the Committee –

(a)   Homelessness could happen for a variety of reasons and often with circumstances out of the control of those involved. It was recognised that in a time of crisis, people were often more vulnerable, and there was a need to ensure the right support was available at the right time to prevent homelessness wherever possible.

(b)   The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (HRA), came into effect in April 2018, placing a new duty on local authorities to help prevent the homelessness of families and single people, who were eligible for assistance and threatened with homelessness, regardless of priority need.

(c)   The Act significantly reformed England’s homelessness legislation by placing duties on local authorities to intervene at earlier stages to prevent homelessness.

(d)  The HRA has increased the number of people eligible for services. The time taken to deal with cases is longer due to the change in the law (now 112 days from application to decision, previously it was 33 working days.) Both of these factors had increased demand on front line services with the time spent on cases doubled and reduced capacity within the service.

(e)   The number of households approaching the Local Authority for advice around homelessness and being threatened with homelessness had been rising over the last few years.  In 2016/17, advice was provided to 1,654 households. This rose to 1,869 households in 2017/18. In 18/19 there was a further increase to 2,514 households.

(f)    Rough Sleeper numbers in Plymouth (the most visible form of homelessness) have risen over the last few years however there was a decrease to 23 in the official count in November 2018 from 26 in November 2017.

(g)   Where it is not possible to prevent or relieve homelessness for eligible households presenting as homeless or at risk of homelessness, Plymouth City Council had a duty to provide emergency temporary accommodation if the household is determined to be in ‘priority need’.

(h)   Plymouth City Council (PCC) commissions a broad range of statutory and non-statutory interventions for people who have support needs in relation to homelessness and may also have support needs around substance misuse, mental health, offending and risk of exploitation.

(i)    Using an Alliance model, the focus was on creating systemic change: changes to culture, funding structures, commissioning and implementing policies that support a new way of working. Furthermore working together to create a contractual environment where suppliers shared responsibility for achieving outcomes and were mutually supportive, making decisions based on the best outcome for the service user.

(j)    A single contract for the provision of support for people with complex needs had been awarded to a partnership of the following organisations in Plymouth, working together in partnership with commissioners as The Plymouth Alliance for Complex Needs (TPA): BCHA, Hamoaze House, Harbour Trust, Livewell South West, Live West, PATH, Shekinah and The Zone.

(k)   An action plan specifically focused on those aged 16/17 was being implemented to reduce the number of young people in temporary accommodation and increase accommodation options to meet the wider needs of homeless young people aged 16- 24years. In order to do this, Plymouth City Council would work with the Plymouth Alliance to review young people’s accommodation and broaden the range of accommodation options for all young people.

The key areas of questioning from Members related to –

·         What plans had been put in place to deal with the hard to house group and how could they be supported;

·         Whether training or support was provided to people when they are out of the hostel system e.g. cooking and life skills;

·         Whether the Police would you encourage people to report rough sleeping and what was the process for doing so;

·         why people opted for housing advice but had chosen not to complete an initial assessment form and was this because people needed more support filling out the forms;

·         the definition for “intentionally homeless” and how support differed for these individuals;

·         how many children were in temporary accommodation and bed and breakfast and the impact temporary accommodation could have on children’s education.

The Committee noted the briefing on recent changes in homelessness legislation with the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA), the Council’s duties in respect of this and the impact of this on service delivery in the City; the levels of homelessness in the City; and the current work and initiatives to prevent and relieve homelessness, including some of the work of The Plymouth Alliance.