Agenda item

To receive an update on homelessness in North Tyneside, with a specific focus on temporary accommodation and prevention work.

The Secure Sub-committee considered an update report supported by a presentation on homelessness in North Tyneside, with a specific focus on temporary accommodation and prevention work.

Homelessness remained an area of high demand, both nationally and across North Tyneside, reflecting the impact of the wider housing market. There were increased demands on services, which was reflected in expenditure. Plans were in place at North Tyneside to respond effectively to this, with ongoing delivery of actions to ensure continuous improvement of services.

To give context ‘A person is homeless if there is no accommodation available for them to occupy.’  Homelessness was diverse, a national issue, symptomatic of the wider housing market and involved increasingly complex cases.

The priority of the Homelessness Service was to prevent homelessness & sustain accommodation, whenever possible. The strands of the service provided a Tenure neutral service; Advisory service; Triage cases, based on priority; 24 hours ‘out of hour’ provision, including SWEP provision; In-house temporary accommodation; Rande of specialist services; and Commissioned service & partnership work.

With regard to homelessness prevention this covered Early presentation of the customer; Fulfilling detail of the Homelessness Plan; Focus on tenancy sustainment, including specialist team; an Early Help Offer; Care Leaver Parent pathway; Specialist terms – Armed Forces, Domestic Abuse, Mental Health, RSAP, AFEO and Private Rented Officer; Referral to specialist services (internal and external; Mediation and ‘Personalisation pot’.

The subcommittee was presented with a breakdown of the statistics for the years 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024-25 (YTD) covering the number of homeless presentations, domestic abuse presentations, the main reason for presentation, the number of priority homeless acceptances, temporary accommodation placements, average length of stay in temporary accommodation and the number, categories during to include, also details of the Homelessness Service Plan covered under the following headings: Property; People; Performance; Processes; and Finance.

Officers provided the following useful contact details in relation to the homelessness service:

·       Freephone: 0800 011 6511

·       Email: homeless.prevention@northtyneside.gov.uk

·       Customer First Centres (by appointment)

Following the presentation, members of the sub-committee were given an opportunity to discuss any recommendations they wished to take forward including a new homelessness policy.

During discussions, members of the sub-committee asked a number of questions which were responded to appropriately, including:

·       Clarification in respect of stages 1, 2, & 3 of the process including triage and the priority for a person with no accommodation on the same day.

·        The position regarding rent arrears and the provision of a small grant fund which the Authority did not claim back.

·        The definition of sofa-surfing and on how people accessed services, which depended on the circumstances and the application submitted.

·        The process for dealing with potential overcapacity and how this was managed including the option to look at other areas outside the borough, if necessary.

·        The housing market and loss of housing stock made it more difficult to manage in respect of allocations and length of stay, which was quite different to 20 years ago.

The Chair thanked officers for the comprehensive report and for their hard work in delivering this important service for what has become increasingly difficult. He commented that homelessness might be a topic the sub-committee may wish to revisit in more detail next year.

It was agreed that the contents of the report and presentation on Homelessness in North Tyneside, be noted.