Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


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 Home50 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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