Memorandum by Daventry District Council
(HOM 32)
1. THE LEVEL
OF HOMELESSNESS
Daventry District Council has seen the number
of homeless applications decrease steadily over the last three
quarters of 2003-04 and more significantly in the first quarter
of 2004-05.
However the percentage of applications accepted as
"Eligible, unintentionally homeless and in priority need"
increases—from 61% of applications (quarter 2 2003-04)
to 85% of applications (quarter 1 2004-05).
Our view is that this is a positive state of
affairs as:
(a) The number of applications is decreasing.
(b) Those who do apply have a priority need,
ie our Homeless Officers are spending their time working with
people who we have a duty to house.
(c) Those who do not have a priority need
or who are intentionally homeless are seen and assisted by our
specialist Housing Advice Service and are not encouraged to complete
application forms when it is clear that their application will
not be accepted as eligible, unintentionally homeless and in priority
need.
The downside of our reduction in applications
from people who are intentionally homeless and/or do not have
a priority need is that we currently have little information on
the size, needs and circumstances of this client group. It would
be easy to assume that we have fewer homeless people than we actually
have.
We are currently addressing this by implementing
better information gathering within our Housing Advice Service.
2. THE NATURE
OF NEED
FOR HOUSING
FOR HOMELESS
PEOPLE
Homeless people require housing and there is
never enough housing to go around.
Daventry suffers from a shortage of both temporary
and permanent accommodation and a high demand for permanent social
housing. (At 27 August 2004 Daventry District Council managed
4,623 social properties (council plus housing association) and
had 1,770 clients on the Housing Register awaiting social housing).
With regard to the need for housing for homeless
people, Daventry is addressing this on a number of fronts:
(a) Homeless at Home
We encourage our homeless applicants to remain
"at home" wherever possible and reward them by giving
50 points on the Housing Register application. This is positive
for the council as it reduces the demand on our extremely limited
stock of temporary accommodation. This is positive for the client
as it removes the disruption of a short-term move before being
moved again when more suitable permanent accommodation becomes
available.
In quarter 1 2004-05, 15 of our 17 applicants
accepted as eligible, unintentionally homeless and in priority
need chose to remain "Homeless at Home".
(b) Home to Stay
Daventry District Council runs a scheme that
assists homeless people to access accommodation in the private
rented sector by assisting with the first month's rent. We can
also hold a one-month deposit bond on the landlord's behalf.
Prospective tenants who qualify for our Home
to Stay scheme must meet the following conditions:
— Be homeless or threatened with homelessness.
— Be unable to meet the cost of paying
rent in advance.
— Have no history of rent arrears or
damage to property.
— Have previous experience of maintaining
a tenancy well.
Our Home to Stay scheme has helped 33 people/households
since commencement in January 2004.
3. THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF HOMELESSNESS
POLICIES IN
MEETING THE
NEEDS OF
HOMELESS HOUSEHOLDS
(a) Daventry Housing Advice Service
The Daventry Housing Advice Service is accessed
by homeless clients not accepted as eligible, unintentionally
homeless and in priority need, ie those clients who we have a
duty to provide advice to, but not to house.
The Housing Advice Service:
— Raises awareness of options available
to homeless people.
— Provides information on legal rights.
— Provides information on housing benefit
eligibility.
A recent survey, carried out 12 July to 12 August,
provided the following feedback from homeless people utilising
this service:
— Satisfaction with the advice given 100%
— Satisfaction with the politeness
of the Housing Advisor 100%
— Satisfaction with the helpfulness
of the Housing Advisor 100%
In addition, many positive comments were recorded
on the survey forms and no negative comments were received.
(b) Home to Stay
The Home to Stay scheme has helped 33 clients
since January 2004. These comprise:
— Eight single homeless people.
— 17 single parent families.
— Eight two parent families.
Our policy is to help as many homeless people
as we can via this scheme. It gives greater accommodation choice
to the clients and reduces the demand for social housing stock.
Many of the people helped are homeless with priority need, but
the scheme also helps people deemed intentionally homeless (so
far we have helped eight intentionally homeless people).
4. THE ADEQUACY
OF INVESTMENT
TO DEAL
WITH HOMELESSNESS
AND THE
QUALITY OF
THE HOUSING
PROVIDED
The lack of committed long term funding from
the ODPM to support our Homelessness Strategy means that it is
difficult to set up and maintain longer term plans.
5. FACTORS AFFECTING
THE SUCCESSFUL
IMPLEMENTATION OF
OUR HOMELESSNESS
STRATEGY
The following factors impact on the successful
implementation of Daventry's Homelessness Strategy:
(a) Funding limitations prevent implementation
of all the actions outlined in our strategy. The ODPM funding
is helpful but isn't enough.
(b) The other agencies—both public
sector and voluntary—state that they are keen to participate
in the implementation of our strategy but have extremely limited
funds and resources. This impedes the achievement of joint actions
and limits the success of joined up working.
6. THE LOCATION
OF PROVISION
FOR HOMELESS
PEOPLE RELATIVE
TO WHERE
THEY LIVE/WHERE
HOMELESS PEOPLE
ARE HOUSED
As a rural district, with limited availability
of both temporary and permanent accommodation for homeless applicants,
we are rarely able to offer a choice of accommodation to match
an applicant's preferences. Daventry District Council permanently
housed homeless individuals and families in permanently designated
properties in Daventry. However, this resulted in the stigmatisation
of these locations and as such the council has now introduced
policies that allow homeless individuals and families to be distributed
more evenly in order to prevent such stigmatisation.
7. THE PRIORITY
GIVEN TO
HOMELESS HOUSEHOLDS
WITHIN THE
OVERALL ALLOCATION
OF SOCIAL
HOUSING
Daventry District Council operates a system
that allocates additional housing register points to homeless
applicants. This operates as follows:
| Homeless at Home | 50 points
|
| Homeless placed in Temporary Accommodation |
20 points |
| Home to Stay (points added towards the end of the tenancy)
| 25 points |
The allocation of increased points for homeless applicants
enables them to be rehoused quicker than other housing applicants
on the housing register.
8. WHETHER THE
NON-HOUSING
SERVICES PROVIDED
FOR HOMELESS
PEOPLE ARE
ADEQUATE AND
ARE
CO -ORDINATED
WITH HOUSING PROVISION
Our current Floating Support Services are well utilised and
we feel provide a critical, positive impact on vulnerable people
who may well be prone to homelessness and repeat homelessness
without this support. Our current levels of support, funded by
Supporting People, are not adequate and there is a waiting list
for floating support. We are currently discussing possible increase
of services with Supporting People and with the involvement of
our floating support providers.
Daventry District Council's aim is to provide floating support
for every homeless case placed in accommodation, both temporary
and permanent, and for relevant cases accommodated via our Home
to Stay scheme. Our response rates for the completion of housing
benefits claims are also good, which is beneficial for homeless
individuals and families and also aids the prevention of future
homelessness in the district. Latest statistics for the department
highlight that the department met their target of 98% of valid
claims being assessed within 30 days, which is in the top quartile
for England.
9. WHETHER PUBLIC
AGENCIES ARE
EFFECTIVE IN
PREVENTING PEOPLE
BECOMING HOMELESS
Prevention is a key aim of Daventry's Homelessness Strategy.
While it is difficult to measure the success of our prevention
initiatives, we are confident that we have made in-roads in prevention
(supported by our continued reduction in homeless applications).
HOME TO
STAY
Our Home to Stay scheme (discussed above) and our Rent Rescue
scheme, a scheme that helps tenants avoid eviction by providing
them with an interest free loan to pay rent arrears, have both
prevented people from becoming homeless.
Daventry Housing Advice Service
The Daventry Housing Advice Service supports homelessness
prevention by:
— Making people aware of their legal rights. For
example, clients faced with eviction may be being illegally evicted
and actually have a right to stay in their home.
— Referring clients to the Home to Stay scheme.
— Making people aware of their rights to housing
benefit. Successful housing benefit claims can allow clients to
pay their rent and thus avoid eviction.
On a less positive note, Daventry Housing Advice has clients
for whom homelessness cannot be prevented. One such client group
is single homeless people who have bad credit ratings. Even though
these clients may often be employed their bad credit rating means
that they are unable to obtain private rented accommodation.
Other Prevention Schemes
Other, newer, prevention schemes that are in the early stages
of implementation include:
— "Home is Better". This is an
initiative to take out to schools with the aim of encouraging
young people to stay at home (wherever possible) rather than to
opt for the homeless route. While our total homeless applications
have steadily fallen, our 16-17 age group applications have risen
and represent 17% of total applications made in 2003-04.
— Homeless Prevention Advice card. This is
an information card that raises the profile of our agencies providing
advice and support services for homeless people. It encourages
people to contact the agencies in advance of becoming homeless.
The card will be available in public areas around the district,
eg supermarkets, libraries, police stations, GP surgeries etc.
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