Issue - meetings

Report CS18107

The Board considered an update on the draft Homelessness Strategy 2018-23 that had been scrutinised at the meeting of Care Services PDS Committee on 14^th November 2017.  This update would also be considered by Council’s Executive at its meeting on 6^th December 2017 with a view to seeking authorisation for an eight week public consultation exercise, following which the Homelessness Strategy 2018-23 would be finalised and presented to the Council’s Executive for approval.

The Local Authority had a legal requirement to agree a published homelessness strategy.  The draft Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 had been developed in consultation with service users and stakeholders and detailed the Local Authority’s approach and further planned developments to strengthen homeless prevention and increase access to affordable and sustainable accommodation, thus reducing demand for emergency accommodation.  The proposed strategic priorities within the draft strategy comprised early identification and prevention of homelessness, achieving positive outcomes for young people, increased access to and promotion of the supply of accommodation and achieving improved health and wellbeing by supporting people to break the cycle of homelessness.  The draft Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 also reflected a significant change to the Local Authority’s statutory duties in relation to homelessness and temporary accommodation within the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 that would come into force in April 2018.  Should the Council’s Executive authorise the eight week public consultation exercise, Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board were requested to provide their views as part of the consultation.

In considering the report, the Chairman was pleased to note the range of preventative work being undertaken to support people to remain in their homes.  The Chief Officer, Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group noted that whilst Integrated Care Networks were currently focused on older people with complex needs, it might be possible to widen this out to include other vulnerable groups who were at risk of homelessness or placed in temporary accommodation, such as people with mental health needs or young families, to ensure their health needs continued to be met in a coordinated way. 

A Board Member reported that Healthwatch Bromley had recently undertaken work on how people who were homeless or who had been placed in temporary accommodation were supported in maintaining their registration with a GP surgery.  The Housing Compliance and Development Manager confirmed that the Support and Resettlement Team worked to support families who were homeless or placed in temporary accommodation to access appropriate school and health services, particularly where they had been placed outside of the Borough.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

Report CS18053

The Committee considered a report outlining the draft Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 and seeking authorisation to commence an eight week public consultation exercise prior to its finalisation.

The Local Authority had a legal requirement to agree a published homelessness strategy.  The draft Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 had been developed in consultation with service users and stakeholders and detailed the Local Authority’s approach and further planned developments to strengthen homeless prevention and increase access to affordable and sustainable accommodation, thus reducing demand for emergency accommodation.  The proposed strategic priorities within the draft strategy comprised early identification and prevention of homelessness, achieving positive outcomes for young people, increased access to and promotion of the supply of accommodation and achieving positive outcomes to improve health and wellbeing and support people to break the cycle of homelessness.  The draft Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 also reflected a significant change to the Local Authority’s statutory duties in relation to homelessness and temporary accommodation within the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 that would come into force in April 2018.

In considering the draft strategy, A Member underlined the need to ensure there was sufficient housing supply within the Borough and that appropriate sites for housing development were identified.  The Vice-Chairman noted that Reading Borough Council had recently announced a programme to develop modular temporary accommodation.  The Director: Housing confirmed that modular housing was one of several options under consideration by the Local Authority and that best practice from other local authorities was used in developing the Borough’s temporary accommodation strategy.  The More Homes for Bromley scheme continued to be successfully rolled out.  A total of 118 properties had now been purchased in the Borough and sub-region, and the Mears Group was undertaking an assessment to identify if the scheme could be expanded beyond the planned 400 properties.

Another Member raised concerns around the increase in Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) within the Borough that did not have to be registered unless they were over a particular size or occupancy, and highlighted the importance of monitoring these properties to ensure they were maintained to a safe standard.  The Director: Housing noted that other local authorities had placed social care clients in Houses in Multiple Occupancy within Bromley and that this raised potential safeguarding concerns where the Local Authority was not made aware of vulnerable residents.  The Member requested that consideration be given to creating a Register of Houses in Multiple Occupancy, and that this could be particularly useful to Ward Members.

The Portfolio Holder confirmed that the two Visiting Officers had recently been appointed within the Housing Service and would deliver a rolling programme of visits for temporary accommodation.  The Housing Service would also be working to develop closer links with private sector landlords with a view to increasing the availability of high quality private sector accommodation.

RESOLVED that the Council’s Executive be recommended to authorise a final eight week public consultation exercise following which the finalised Homelessness Strategy 2018-2023 and action plan would be presented to the Council’s Executive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53