Agenda item

To receive a report from Cabinet Member for New Homes & Sustainable Development Councillor Helen Dennis on the draft formal consultation plan for the homelessness strategy. Officer support Cheryl Russell, Director of Residents Services, Jerome Duffy, Programme, Policy and Change Manager and Karen Shaw, Head of Housing Solutions

The commission first heard from Councillor Helen Dennis on the following points

• Need for a co-ordinated joint action plan from government based on benefits and evictions from the private rented sector
• Rough sleeping and homelessness numbers higher than last year; increase in temporary accommodation numbers
• Draft strategy agreed by Cabinet in March 2024; consultation starting August 2024 for 12 weeks; draft survey open to public; pro-active approach to homelessness forum and external partner organisations for feedback and experiences
• Five objectives- Homelessness prevention, delivering high quality advice and support, improving accessibility of services, working to end rough sleeping, improving outcomes through housing placement, temporary accommodation (TA), minimise out of borough placements, new procurement framework for TA and tackling systemic housing insecurities; Housing allowance and discretionary payments

The commission then asked questions on the following topics

• Financial constraints and unsustainability of council financing and its impact on homelessness strategy objectives
• Progress on clear channels of communication with external partner organisations; housing for young people under 25; government priority of building 1.5m homes over 5 years and mitigating impact on the homelessness strategy
• Provisions for care leavers in housing policy

The commission heard Karen Shaw, Head of Housing Solutions that there is a need to influence central government policy changes in funding to achieve the objectives in the homelessness strategy. The action plan seeks to look at operational changes locally to improve the procurement of social housing. Furthermore, strategic meeting with partners to improve services. London has seen a 70% increase in shared accommodation for families such as Bed and Breakfast and even higher numbers for families in shared accommodation for over six weeks, Southwark’s numbers are at zero. Rough sleeping numbers have seen an overall increase from last year, the council is working to reduce rough sleeping.

The commission then heard from Hakeem Osinaike, Strategic Director for Housing that the homelessness strategy has been produced after considering the needs of partner organisations, council’s objectives and political priorities. Southwark is better at managing TA and its associated costs when compared to other Local Authorities across London and even nationally.

Councillor Dennis explained to the commission that the homelessness strategy needs to be comprehensive, especially considering the recent issues with home office asylum application decisions, where in a positive decision would mean the termination of their hotel stays and the council then having a duty to provide housing for refugees. However, it is important to remember that the primary objective is prevention of homelessness.

Karen informed the commission that some progress has been made in areas of delayed discharges for housing, there are instances where the council is not able to offer a solution due to varying needs of individuals. The housing solutions team is looking at areas where communication and co-ordination with external partners could be improved.

Furthermore, the council is working on a new offer to cater for young people in need of housing, current offer needs to be improved to deliver high quality customised advice on housing options available, including support in the private rented sector.

The commission learned from Hakeem that the consultation on the homeless strategy will include feedback from the under 25 age group; in addition to working with partner organisations to provide young people composite advice and support in areas such as future housing needs.

Councillor Dennis explained to the commission that models such as Centrepoint in Peckham which is a stepping stone accommodation at discounted rates for young people to get into employment have been successful working examples, however the need across the borough is a lot broader. Broader work is needed in understanding the other issues such as friends and family evictions, implementation of the housing allocations policy is an opportunity to do a deep dive into the needs of housing for young people.

On building houses, there is a clear lack of supply, so increasing supply would help reduce the prices of private rented sector and should increase the access for young people for housing in the private rented sector. The council aims to provide more affordable social rented housing as defined by the planning policy and legislation by looking at community trust lands and key worker housing.

Karen informed the commission that care leavers do get priority for housing and very few go through the homeless route, more work needs to be done through allocations policy to support care leavers. There have been conversations between the Corporate Parenting Group, Councillor Jasmine Ali (Cabinet Member for Children Education and Refugees) and council officers focusing on care leavers; how we could support them better through housing allocation policy and in the private rented sector.

Councillor Jane Salmon (commission member) discussed with officers suggesting that the survey would receive more responses from organisations such as church groups and external partner organisations, and also that question 6 in the survey could be more specific to get an ideal response. Furthermore, co-living spaces would be beneficial for young people and adults and perhaps the council should approach developers to build a few of those kinds of residences.

Councillor Dennis explained to the commission that new legislation for housing in London has made it essential to make provisions for co-living spaces and schemes such as Canada Water and Ilderton Road are in the pipeline.

The commission then asked further questions on the following themes

• Single point of contact; Homelessness in LGBT community (protected characteristics in survey); Homelessness focus groups to feedback into consultation.
• Out of borough placements not mentioned in the survey; Discussions with families on under-occupancy; Anti-social behaviour; Non-violent relationships breakups and homelessness
• Inner London homelessness at 1400 and Southwark level 3600; High demands in private rented sector

The commission learned from Karen that some partner organisations do have a single point of contact within the council, and the team will look into areas where a single point of contact is needed especially in case of hospital discharges. The survey would be amended to include protected characteristics such as gender reassignment and sexual orientation ensuring LGBTQ+ community is included. The engagement with the corporate parenting board and young people (care leavers) through ‘Speakerbox’ has helped highlight the needs of young people, young people living with their families in TA, this needs to be explored further with specialist support. Focus groups such as rough sleepers have been done in the past and its powerful tool for community engagement and homelessness and such work will continue.

Furthermore, out of borough placements are avoided where possible to ensure that people are closer to their community and support systems, however the back log of 3900 in temporary accommodation makes it difficult to avoid out of borough placements in reality.

The commission discussed with officers the need to be more transparent in the survey by mentioning that the housing crisis due to lack of supply, cost-of-living and high renting costs, and also that this could mean that a less than ideal solution of out of borough placements is considered in certain instances. Consultation will include detailed plans and covering documents that have been submitted to this commission meeting. The commission also noted that as part of the consultation there would be open and honest conversations with the consultees giving them the opportunity to feedback on the council’s responses to their comments during consultation.

Karen explained to the commission that friends and family evictions is the single biggest reason for homelessness in Southwark. Overcrowding in families could often result in young people/family members having to leave their homes, conversations with families in such situations are essential to prevent homelessness. Non-violent relationship breakdown is not a large cohort within homelessness but is one of the reasons for some homelessness. Historical demand and a number of other previously mentioned reasons are responsible for high homelessness numbers in Southwark. Homelessness numbers in Southwark stabilised in 2022 post-Covid and began rising in the years after due to cost-of-living and high private renting costs.  The strategy aims to target prevention in homelessness to avoid more number of people going into TA. Private rented sector was a viable option pre-Covid, post-Covid there has been a lack of supply and difficulties in sourcing affordable private accommodation which has led to an increase in costs in the private sector. However, the rising costs and the reasons for increase costs in the private sector are now starting to slow, post-Covid and there is some hope that it would be more affordable in the near future.

The commission then asked further questions on the following topics

• Readability of survey; feedback information from mediation service for homelessness due to family relationship breakdown

• Reporting of numbers of in-person surveys conducted by council; Impact of homelessness prevention in easing financial pressures and its inclusion as an aim of the strategy

The commission learnt from Karen that feedback received by the council’s housing solutions team from mediation work carried out, is a tried and tested method, and this information is also used to help public with future housing options. On readability of the survey, officers will feed back to the commission. The commission also learnt that in-person surveys have specific numbers thresholds to create the group and these will be reported back to the commission.

Hakeem informed the commission that homelessness prevention was not just a legislative priority but also a service wide priority. Furthermore, the biggest pressure on the housing revenue comes from overpriced poor quality TA and the homelessness prevention also aims to finding reasonably priced good quality TA. However Southwark Council when compared to other London Boroughs and Local Authorities (LA) nationally, pays less for TA.

Cllr Dennis explained to the commission that some LAs’ have had to use Bed & Breakfast nightly paid accommodation for families, which has had an impact on children, comparatively Southwark relies on existing housing stock to avoid this including housing options in some of the regeneration projects. Housing solutions team within the council is working on different models on how the existing housing can be used for TA efficiently, in addition to expanding the current housing stock within Southwark.

The commission agreed to have an update on the formal consultation plan once it has been implemented in the coming months.