Memorandum by the Countryside Agency (HOM
58)
SUMMARY
While recorded homelessness in England generally
saw significant increases in 2002-03, the largest increase was
seen in rural areas (24.2%). In remote rural areas there was a
29.4% increase on 2001-02. However, these figures represent only
part of the problem as official records of homelessness do not
take account of hidden homelessness, ie those people who, having
become homeless, stay with friends or relatives, often in accommodation
characterised by insecure and poor living conditions. In rural
areas, this is the most common way in which homelessness is experienced,
but is largely ignored in traditional measures of homelessness.
Therefore programmes to address homelessness should be extended
beyond traditional homeless "spaces" and address hidden
homelessness. In addition, programmes to meet the needs of homeless
people, including the Supporting People programme, need to be
rural proofed and delivered flexibly in rural areas. Rural local
authorities may need additional help to ensure they are able to
identify and address homelessness in their areas.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Countryside Agency is the Government's
statutory adviser on the English countryside. We aim to make the
quality of life better for people in the countryside and the quality
of the countryside better for everyone, wherever they live. Our
advice and expertise is based on research and demonstration projects,
through which we have developed an evidence and knowledge base
on housing in rural areas, including homelessness and ways of
tackling it.
2. Our response draws on the following three
pieces of research: "Preventing homelessness in the countryside
. . . what works?", a guide principally designed for local
authorities developing homelessness strategies; "Support
and housing in the countryside" which demonstrates innovative
solutions to providing supported housing in rural areas, including
some types of homelessness provision; and "Estimating homelessness
in rural areas: A step-by-step sourcebook of information and ideas",
that offers an alternative methodology to the official headcount
of rough sleepers.
3. More recently, we funded a rural case
study as part of a Crisis-funded project exploring the nature
and prevalence of hidden homelessness and squatting amongst homeless
people. The subsequent Crisis publication, "Your place, not
mine" highlighted the particular prevalence of hidden homelessness
in the rural case study. We also published a research note highlighting
the specifically rural findings from this work (copy attached).
4. We currently provide support for 39 Rural
Housing Enablers across rural England and we have drawn on their
first hand experience of measuring and tracking rural homelessness
in this response.
THE LEVEL
AND NATURE
OF NEED
FOR HOUSING
FOR HOMELESS
PEOPLE
5. Historically, homelessness has been typically
regarded as an essentially urban problem. This is due to two principle
factors. Homelessness as it is experienced in rural communities
tends to be "hidden", so there is, for example, less
visible homelessness, such as rough sleeping. Second, the dispersed
nature of rural deprivation means it is difficult to quantify
and is often masked by apparent overall affluence in many rural
communities. These factors provide a challenge for policy-makers
and practitioners in identifying and addressing needs in rural
areas.
6. Our State of the Countryside 2004 report,
[1]published
earlier this year, showed that homelessness in the countryside
was increasing. The recorded rate of homelessness in rural districts
is of course much lower than in urban districts, however the report
highlights a considerable increase in the number of homeless households
in rural areas accepted as priority need, the most significant
increase (just under 30%) having occurred in remote rural districts.
In addition half of rural families classified as homeless and
in priority need were given temporary accommodation compared to
about three quarters in urban districts. These figures appear
to support recent research which indicates that rural local authorities
have difficulties in providing temporary, as well as permanent,
move-on accommodation for homeless people and in rural areas there
is a greater reliance by homeless people on family and friends
to provide support and accommodation.
7. While the percentage growth in the number
of homeless households represents a significant increase in rural
areas, it follows a consistent upward trend of year on year increases
since 1999-2000 (in accessible rural areas there was a small decrease
in numbers in 2001-02 before a significant rise in the following
year). Notably, between 1992 and 1996, whilst homelessness in
urban areas was falling, in rural areas the levels of homeless
were increasing. By 2001 rural homelessness had risen from 11%
to 19% of the national total.
8. However, these figures do not take account
of "hidden homelessness" and what is sometimes referred
to as "Sofa Surfing". Also, whilst rough sleeping is
by no means as common as in towns and cities, it does exist in
rural areas. However, the official counting methodologies are
not suitable measures of need in rural areas and where counts
are undertaken the net result is often to underestimate rough
sleeper numbers. There are essentially two problems with the headcount
method in rural areas. First, not all local authorities are obliged
to undertake a headcount, unless there is already a perceived
problem and some rural authorities are reluctant to acknowledge
homelessness as an issue in their area. Second, rough sleepers
can be harder to identify in rural areas, as there are fewer points
of concentration. For instance it is common in rural areas for
rough sleepers to adopt strategies of concealment to avoid the
social stigma that is often more marked in smaller communities.
9. The Homelessness Directorate at the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister accepts that the headcount methodology
represents only estimates of the population of rough sleepers
and a "snapshot" of need on any given night of the year.
Headcounts can provide a useful proxy of rough sleeper numbers
in rural areas, but with important caveats. The pre-eminence of
rough sleeper counts as a statistical measure of levels of homelessness
can serve to reinforce the perception of homelessness as a predominantly
urban problem.
HIDDEN HOMELESSNESS
IN RURAL
AREAS
10. Research on hidden homelessness in rural
areas shows that people in these circumstances typically suffer
poor living conditions, restrictions on movement, have no security
of tenure, and are unlikely to have their own room or private
space.
11. The report "Your place not mine:
the experiences of homeless people staying with family and friends",
commissioned by Crisis and the Countryside Agency, demonstrated
that staying with family and friends was a common situation across
England but particularly so in rural areas. It also demonstrated
reluctance for people staying with family and friends to approach
the local authority as homeless. Less than one in four of the
respondents in the rural case study (Craven District in North
Yorkshire) had been recognised as homeless by the local authority
and, therefore, failed to appear in the official homeless statistics.
Most notable was the greater likelihood of homeless people in
Sheffield, representing an area of low demand for housing in the
study, to approach their local authority for assistance than in
either the London and Craven case studies, which both represented
high demand housing markets. In the Craven case study there was
some scepticism amongst the hidden homeless population about the
help and assistance they could expect from the local authority,
in an area where the social rented sector accounts for only 9.6%
of the local housing stock and, at the time the report was published
last year, there was virtually no specialist provision targeted
at the needs of homeless people.
THE SUCCESS
OF POLICIES
MEETING THE
NEEDS OF
HOMELESS HOUSEHOLDS
IN RURAL
AREAS
12. As outlined above, for policy to be
fully relevant to the needs of homeless people in rural areas
requires more effective methods of identifying and measuring homelessness.
13. Whilst rough sleeping is undoubtedly
far less of a problem in rural areas than in urban centres, for
the true extent of rough sleeping in rural areas to be identified
and measured, the present methodologies for counting homelessness
would need to be changed. Current ODPM guidance recommends the
identification of homeless numbers to go beyond the "snap
shot" headcount, for example by local authorities working
more closely with local voluntary agencies. In our view, this
should be a requirement on all local authorities and not only
those where there is a "perceived" problem.
14. Another problem in many rural areas
is the lack of homelessness services and support, which in turn
serves to mask need. Without adequate provision, people in need
may not present themselves to the local authority in their area
or seek help in their own locality. Typically in rural areas there
is a dearth of supported housing provision which results in homeless
people moving to neighboring urban authorities in order to access
the services they require. Supporting People is important in this
context in providing services close to where people live and,
in particular, ensuring that services are provided where they
currently do not exist, which is likely to be the case in many
rural areas. The services funded by Supporting People, such as
floating support, are particularly important in providing supported
housing services in rural areas. The way in which funding for
such services is distributed is important and we welcome the recent
ODPM briefing paper, "Proposals for Developing the Supporting
People Distribution Formula", published this month, which
includes a measure of the relative differences in cost generated
by rurality.
15. The lack of temporary and permanent
move-on accommodation for homeless people has serious implications
for homelessness levels in rural communities (and will have an
impact on nearby urban authorities as homeless people move to
the towns for support and housing). The adequate supply of affordable
housing is of course of primary importance, particularly the availability
of social housing to rent, whose numbers in rural areas have declined
radically under Right-To-Buy legislation. It is therefore essential
that rural authorities have the ability to develop appropriate
levels of this provision and to retain that stock in perpetuity.
16. In addition, the supply of affordable
homes affects the ability of rural local authorities to fulfil
their responsibilities under the Homelessness Act 2002. Recent
legislation restricting the number of weeks local authorities
can house families in temporary accommodation will also be difficult
to achieve in rural areas where there is a limited amount of social
housing available. Rural local authorities are looking at innovative
ways to address the problem, for example repairs to empty homes,
using private sector homes to accommodate temporary homeless applicants
through voluntary agreements with homeowners etc, but these are
often limited in scale and do not necessarily meet the support
needs of homeless people.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
17. Official homelessness statistics only
partially reveal numbers of homeless people. If policies are to
be effective in tackling homelessness in rural areas there first
has to be an acknowledgment of the phenomenon of hidden homelessness
and more effective means of measuring and addressing this problem.
At the same time traditional measures of homelessness should be
updated to reflect rural circumstances. Policies such as Supporting
People need to be properly rural proofed and we welcome the recent
consultation paper on the Supporting People Distribution Formula,
which proposes to better reflect additional rural costs. Finally,
appropriate levels of affordable housing retained in perpetuity,
will ultimately determine the success of any measures in rural
districts that seeks to address homelessness.
1 The State of the Countryside report is produced
annually to provide independent feedback to government on the
impacts of policy and broader changes in the countryside. Back
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