Mr Calvin Pearson will be attending to provide an update from the Housing Division regarding Homelessness and Begging in Bromley.
Minutes:
The Head of Housing Options Assessment and Support attended the meeting to provide an update from the Housing Division regarding homelessness and street begging in Bromley.
Among the initiatives introduced by the Council to tackle these issues, ‘More Homes Bromley’ had seen Bromley Council enter into a partnership with the Mears Group whereby Mears purchased properties, refurbished them to the ‘decent homes’ standard and managed them to house Bromley residents in need of temporary accommodation. More than 400 homes had been purchased so far. Of these, 280 had been brought up to standard and were being used.
The Partnership heard that the Bromley Winter Shelter had opened on 13th November, and would remain open until 31st March 2020. The sum of £20k had been allocated to provide funding for a designated rough sleeper worker until March 31st, and the worker would be starting the week following the meeting. At the time of the meeting, the number of beds in the shelter was 20. It was anticipated that by 20th December, another 23 beds would be provided at a winter shelter in Penge. New legislation imposed a duty on local authorities to not just provide temporary winter accommodation, but to subsequently find a permanent place for them to live.
The Head of Housing Options, Assessment and Support highlighted that an application for a grant of £90k had been submitted. This would be used to help to alleviate homelessness in a number of ways, including providing the funds to employ a full time Homeless Pathway Worker.
The Partnership was informed that currently there were 1600 people in temporary accommodation in Bromley, which included 900 families. Some of these families had unfortunately needed to be placed out of the borough. With the introduction of the new modular housing (Z Pods) it was hoped to bring many of these families back into the borough. Work was underway to identify suitable sites to locate the Z Pods in.
The Homeless Division was considering the option of joint working with a developer to provide more housing. It was hoped that the joint work would commence at some point in 2021. There was much Greenbelt Land in Bromley and this limited where a housing development could be situated.
The Partnership was appraised that currently there were 3000 people on the Housing Register; the Council had limited control over the Housing Register as the Council did not own any housing stock.
A member asked if any data was available regarding the current number of rough sleepers. The Head of Housing Options Assessment and Support answered that when this was checked in November, the number of street homeless was 8; this compared with 6 and 5 for the respective previous two years. From the figure of 8, 4 were found in Bromley, 2 in Orpington, 1 in Penge and 1 in Crystal Palace.
A member stated that Clare Lewin from the CCG would like the opportunity to make contact with the Head of Housing Options Assessment and Support.
Post Meeting Note:
(The Committee Clerk disseminated the contact details for the Head of Housing Options Assessment and Support to Mr Paul Sibun from the CCG as agreed on December 5th)
The Head of Housing Options, Assessment and Support advised that officers from the Housing Division would offer advice and support to rough sleepers, but at the end of the day the onus lay with the homeless person to engage and to accept assistance. This is where the appointment of the dedicated full time Homeless Pathway Worker would be key in managing the engagement process.
Superintendent Carswell felt that at some point action would be required against those individuals who were causing a public nuisance but were refusing to engage with services. The police expressed the view that the Partnership had a social responsibility to the community in these matters. Mr Carswell said that it may be necessary for action to be taken either in the form of injunctions, or by using Community Protection Notices. This would then force the issue into the legal process and also force the individual to get help. The Chairman suggested that this idea should be considered, and a discussion took place concerning the merits and demerits of this course of action.
The Chairman of the BSAB (Bromley Safeguarding Adults Board) was concerned that vulnerable people should be properly safeguarded and expressed the view that there was a lack of services that provided drug and alcohol support. She felt that means should be used to help vulnerable adults before criminalising them. To this end she suggested the use of ‘inherent jurisdiction’
Note on Inherent Jurisdiction:
Before the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), the means for the High Court to intervene in the life of a mentally incapacitated adult was founded upon the Court’s inherent jurisdiction. The inherent jurisdiction is a doctrine of the English common law that a superior court has the jurisdiction to hear any matter that comes before it, unless a statute or rule limits that authority or grants exclusive jurisdiction to some other court or tribunal.
The regulations of the MCA have replaced the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court in the case of mentally incapacitated people. However, the High Court has gradually extended the use of the inherent jurisdiction to the group of vulnerable adults – adults who possess capacity but still require protection for certain reasons.
The aim of the High Court in these cases is (most often) pre-emptive intervention; to prevent the circumstances within which an adult might not be able to exercise a free choice at some point in the future.
A typical example here is the case of G. Although G was judged to have capacity to decide about having contact with her father, prior experience demonstrated that the contact led to significant deterioration in G’s mental state, including G’s mental capacity. Thus, pre-emptive intervention was justified to maintain her mental state.
The Partnership was encouraged to note the Street Link App and to use this as much as possible. It was suggested that wider dissemination of information regarding the Street Link App should be provided to the public. Referral of an individual via the Street Link App would enable the individual to be supported by a wide range of services.
Partners discussed possible links to modern slavery and organised crime, particularly with respect to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals.
The Chairman of the SNB stated that a campaign was underway to educate the public into not giving cash to individuals begging on the streets. Collection boxes for Shelter were going to be used instead, and this message would be reinforced using electronic display boards.
It was agreed that the LBB Head of Trading Standards and Community Safety would have a discussion outside of the meeting with the Head of Housing Options and Assessment to discuss the possible use of Community Protection Notices, injunctions and inherent jurisdiction.
RESOLVED that the update from the Housing Division is noted and that the LBB Head of Trading Standards and Community Safety should have a discussion outside of the meeting with the Head of Housing Options and Assessment, to discuss the possible use of Community Protection Notices, Injunctions and Inherent Jurisdiction in cases where homeless individuals and street beggars were refusing to engage with services.