Bill Rowlands reviews the homelessness strategies and action plans newly developed by Welsh local authorities.
The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 places a duty on all local authorities to carry out a homelessness review for their area and formulate and adopt a homelessness strategy based on the results of that review. The strategies, commonly produced in partnership with a range of partners in the council and third party agencies, outline the overall picture of homelessness in the authority, assess how the authority has responded, and outline the aims and objectives for the authority in tackling homelessness. The action plans, also formulated by each local authority, provide further detail as to how they will achieve the aims expressed with their strategies.
In North Wales, Gwent and to a certain extent Dyfed Powys the local authorities have pooled their resources to establish regional homelessness strategies as there is the belief that homelessness, and the factors that can cause it, have no regard for local authority boundaries. To truly address the issue of homelessness councils need to work together to join up data, services and solutions.
This article provides a brief overview of the current situation in Wales regarding homelessness before outlining the responses of local authorities and regions to tackling the challenges they are currently facing and the key priorities they have adopted.
This table summarises the current position in Wales:
| Households threatened with homelessness | 9,072* |
| Homeless households | 11,277* |
| Households in priority need | 2,229* |
| Homeless families with dependent children | 882* |
| Households in temporary accommodation | 2,052* |
| Individuals sleeping rough | 188** |
Sources: * gov.wales/docs/statistics/2018/180801-homelessness-2017-18-revised-en.pdf ** gov.wales/docs/statistics/2019/190205-national-rough-sleeper-count-november-2018-en.pdf
Although each local authority has its own specific there are a number of recurring themes: a lack of affordable accommodation in the private rented sector and in particular for those under 35; long waiting times for social housing; and landlords being generally unwilling to rent to households in receipt of either housing benefit or universal credit. An increased general demand upon housing teams was noted as well the increased prevalence of individuals presenting as homeless with multiple complex needs.
In tackling the multi-faceted causes of homelessness, local authorities have coalesced around a number of key priorities as a result of responding to demand from specific demographics, namely the increased number of rough sleepers and the growing frequency of youth homelessness, and as a result of direction from Welsh Government and amending services to follow the spirit of the 2014 Housing (Wales) Act.
In line with the emphasis placed on the prevention of homelessness before ‘crisis’ point, a commitment to flexible and proactive prevention services is at the forefront of all homeless strategies. This stems from the view that homelessness is a symptom and not the cause of an individual’s situation. A number of strategies highlight the need to make ‘prevention everyone’s responsibility’, emphasising the need to work with partners and local communities to ensure that the trigger points for homelessness can be identified and understood.
Young people are over-represented in homelessness statistics when compared with census data. There has been a growing political emphasis on the eradication of youth homelessness, evidenced by the former First Minister’s commitment to ending youth homelessness by 2027 and the £10 million additional funding specifically for under 25s.
This commitment is evident in all homelessness strategies, focusing on ensuring young people have a knowledge of the services that are available to them, commonly utilising social media, and are ready for a tenancy. They highlight the importance of education focused specifically on the issue of homelessness, and a belief that family mediation services are key, as ensuring that a young person can happily and safely remain in the family home is the optimal outcome.
The importance of partnership working in preventing and alleviating homelessness is perhaps starkest in relation to youth homelessness, and across strategies this importance is reiterated, particularly in relation to the relationship with social services in working to create better communication and to embed the young person’s positive pathway to independent living.
Another important demographic is people experiencing rough sleeping, which commonly links to improving services for those presenting with complex needs. Throughout the strategies there are commitments to the continuation or development of assertive outreach teams to better engage with them, with a number hoping to embed a specific mental health officer within their outreach team. To improve services for individuals with multiple needs there is the recognition of the impact of adverse childhood experiences and how service provision should reflect this which further embodies the need for ‘person centred’ and ‘trauma informed’ approaches to engagement.
Housing First as an approach to better support this demographic is explored across the homelessness strategies either with local authorities committing to trailblazer schemes or to monitor the success of neighbouring local authorities’ schemes. For some authorities this included a commitment to a co-ordinated communications strategy to evidence the benefits to local politicians.
The WLGA Housing Network is committed to working with local authorities and other partners to deliver on these strategies.
Bill Rowlands is project officer at the Housing Networks