Agenda item

To consider the presentation from Christopher Brown, Service Director of Housing.

The committee received a presentation from Christopher Brown, Service Director for Housing, providing the context of demand and supply pressures and statistics around people are risk of homelessness and rough sleeping. They detailed the prevention approach, and looked at the impact of rough sleeping and the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP), and how the new Somerset Housing and Rough Sleeping Strategy is being developed. The request to the councillors was to know what information the committee needed from the team as the strategy was being developed?

The committee noted the report and a discussion followed.

The team offered to do a members briefing including the strategic work that the team is doing so that members can be more aware.

A presentation was given by Christopher Brown, Service Director for Housing,  providing the context of demand and supply pressures and statistics around people are risk of homelessness and rough sleeping. They detailed the prevention approach, and looked at the impact of rough sleeping and the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP), and how the new Somerset Housing and Rough Sleeping Strategy is being developed. The request to the councillors was to know what information the committee needed from the team as the strategy was being developed?

During the discussion, the following points were raised and responded to:

• With the development being an iterative process and there is a huge amount of data to be gathered, when will there be a more detailed report to come back to us? In six to eight months there will be findings from the data, but there will be working groups that members may want to be involved in.
• As housing teams were previously in district councils, are the teams now in harmony or is there catching up required? Service was delivered in 2 different ways in districts. Two delivered through contracts, two delivered through direct delivery. All officers are working together on things like SWEP, a structural change for internal consistency. There are different inherited ways of working but positive communication and working towards a unified service.
• With the different ways of working, is there a disparity of skills? Each of the teams has inherent skill, but different skillsets across the council, including specialist officers and officers doing outreach. There is a need to decide how much is outsourced in future and how much is managed in house. Some areas need additional support around specific issues like prison leavers, which have impacted some areas more, so there are skill differences around that. There will be different providers who work across the services. Some services are rolled out geographically, while others are across the whole team, for example a recent grant of £269,000 from DLUHC for extra nursing capacity for the homeless health team.
• Given the council is moving to focusing on statutory responsibilities, how will that impact this work, and is there discretionary funding that will be covered? The statutory duties are very expensive. Prevention work, which is discretionary, should be focused on, as it is much more cost effective. The proposed shape of the service will do more on triage and prevention. Currently the council only prevents 29% of homelessness, compared to a national average of 52%. It’s not quite as simple as statutory vs discretionary. There is a ringfenced grant for rough sleeping intervention that has to be returned if it is not used.
• Where there is provision in the Taunton area, some people are rough sleeping because they do not follow the rules of accommodation provision, for example not taking drugs or alcohol. Some people have run out of options in terms of accommodation, and there is a creative solutions team.
• People in tents cause angst in communities. Councillors let the team know and are not given feedback other than ‘outreach is occuring’, and would it be possible to get feedback about individual cases? There would be way to feed that back without breaching GDPR. Outreach teams often need to build relationships. The council does not distribute tents, but will provide hot drinks and sleeping bags to people who refuse to go indoors. Tents in Yeovil Park have outreach and are sometimes removed when there is antisocial behaviour.
• Are there hotspots of areas of the rough sleepers? Taunton is a rough sleeping hot spot, as Open Door provides showers and hot food and draws people in. East also has a high number of rough sleepers, as they are often returning rough sleepers who haven’t had access to the right kind of accommodation and support. The situation there is 50% rough sleepers, and work is being done with other agencies to create a support package. People are attracted to different areas, and there is a need for specialised accommodation in the East and West. In part due to Glastonbury, there is an attraction to rural areas for vehicle dwellers and rough sleepers, as there is a tolerant community and organisations that provide support. All services are seeing needs get more complex, and it is a national issue due to the economic and social situation at the moment.
• What are the main preventative factors? Where people are in accommodation, there are more options to retain that accommodation and ensure people remain housed, or finding alternative accommodation and supporting them through legal complications. There is also work around hospital discharge, with workers on wards to discuss accommodation when people are discharged, and prison releases also used to be a real issue, but there is now funding for specialist workers in North and South to work with people before they are released. Prevention can’t eradicate homelessness, because life is complicated.
• What are the different models of housing provision? There is a housing first model which has 8 houses dedicated to it in West. There are currently 18 houses in East, increasing to 22. Work is being done for the most complex cases. RSI has a personalised budget to help people off the street, including a private rented budget to help with advance rent and working with other support agencies like the homeless nursing team.
• Where there are schemes that people are placed in communities, need to appreciate the impact on those communities and do communication work. For example, Canons Grove.
• Is housing first a model you will be developing because it works well? Yes. It’s not low cost but when we find money we do it.
• How do we find appropriate people to speak to about rough sleepers within the community? There is a members Q&A sheet that shares the contact details for those resources.
• How do you deal with ongoing problems of antisocial behaviour? The team are good at intervening early. There may be a need for stronger action.
• Are traveller issues separate? We have failed to address this and get provision for travellers. There is work going on around non-bricks and mortar communities, including development of traveller sites. There is a specialist housing advisor in the East who works with that group.
• What’s the definition of rough sleeping versus homelessness? They are the same – verified bedded down in a public place, or sleeping in a car that’s not converted or in a shed, tent, or other shelter. Vehicle dwellers are often living in vans that are worse than rough sleeping.

The team offered to do a members briefing including the strategic work that the team is doing so that members can be more aware.