Council approves homelessness prevention strategy

Herefordshire Council leaders have approved a strategy to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the county.

Councillors say their review shows they have been successful in preventing people from becoming homeless in the county.

But they say they need to do more in their response to rough sleepers and those who have complex and challenging needs.

The new strategy hopes to place prevention of homelessness as central to everything the council does.

Housing, regulatory services, and community safety cabinet member Ange Tyler said:  “We will review and develop our current operational structure to ensure that homelessness preventative activity is central to everything we do.

“We will investigate opportunities for entering into a long term lease with a private landlord to develop bespoke good quality temporary accommodation for accepted vulnerable homeless households, where required.

“We will ensure that this accommodation is accessible to people with a mobility issue or a physical disability.”

The council will also seek external funding to pay for the rollout of a homelessness health improvement project.

The local authority also wants to reduce rough sleeping by strengthening their outreach and resettlement team by recruiting more staff.

“We will work with key partners to investigate how a pilot Housing First project for Herefordshire can be delivered,” coun Tyler added.

“Through ‘Team Herefordshire’ sponsorship a cross-sector systemic approach that makes rough sleeping and sofa surfing rare, infrequent and then, non-reoccurring, will be developed.

“This systemic approach will be important in recognising and assisting those who are sofa surfing who can represent hidden homelessness that can be difficult to identify”.

The council’s health needs audit showed the physical and mental health of homeless people is extremely poor and the financial costs of living on the streets are considerable.

The study found the main reason for homelessness was the termination of a private rented sector tenancies.

They say this occurred most often because the landlord wanted to sell the property.

The next most frequently occurring reasons were family or friends no longer being willing to house them, relationship breakdowns and domestic violence and abuse.