Homelessness

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We have tackled the most extreme problems
Rough sleeping reduced by 75 since 1998 Biggest
concentration remains in central London Great
success but no room for complacency 90m Hostels
Improvement Programme is key to further progress
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BB target date
Ended long-term use of BB for families with
children between March 2002 and March 2004 Now a
statutory obligation Overall use of BB hotels
has come down
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But heres the challenge for us
As social housing availability has
declined, number of households in temporary
accommodation has more than doubled Reached an
all-time high of 100,000 in 2004, but steady
since then Target is to halve number by 2010.
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5 year strategy to reduce homelessness
86 of LAs have more staff preventing homelessness
now
87 of LAs now have a rent deposit scheme
Halve use of temporary accommodation by 2010
Supporting People 5 billion over three years
Domestic violence a factor in 1 in 7
homelessness cases
90 million hostels improvement programme
SR04 provided for 50 increase in social housing
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The strategy put simply

• Reduce the number of households placed in
  temporary accommodation.
• Increase the number of households moved out of
  temporary accommodation.
• Tackle the backlog of households in temporary
  accommodation.
• Its challenging but its not rocket science.

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Reduce the number of households placed in
temporary accommodation
Strategies put in place
Prevention is the key. New local authority
strategies and prevention approaches started in
2002 Homelessness falling since end of
2003 Increasing investment in prevention up to
2007-08 and expect further reductions in
homelessness
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How is homelessness being prevented?
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What really makes prevention work?

• Administering homelessness differentlyless fire
  fighting
• Understanding causes, offering the right
  solutions strategically and individually
• Adopting a customer service approach and
  attractive choices
• Thinking how can we help? not who must we
  help?
• A rights-based approach? Yes. Right people,
  right place, right solutions, right time.

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How can wider causes symptoms be tackled?

• Improving access to
• housing
• work and benefits
• health services and drug/alcohol treatment
• legal services
• Support, e.g. to stop ASB and prevent recurrence
• Working across Government
• How can you get better engagement of key services?

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Some final thoughts

• Homelessness imposes massive social and financial
  costs
• On families and vulnerable people
• On local authorities
• On tax payers
• On communities.
• NAO reckon we spend 1 billion on homelessness as
  a nation, each year.
• We neednt. Homelessness is preventable.
• If you cant afford prevention, how can you
  afford homelessness?