Foreword by Cllr. Jo Rust, Cabinet Member for People and Communities
The King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy is titled “Ending Homelessness, Person by Person”. It puts people first and foremost.
The strategy recognises the need for support and, most importantly, a secure roof over each person’s head. It has been developed alongside people who have lived experience of homelessness and rough sleeping. It fully integrates people’s voices into our plans. It is a ‘live’ document - a framework for the next five years.
We recognise the huge efforts that have been taken to reduce rough sleeping, the most visible form of homelessness, in the borough. But we also recognise our new set of challenges, many of which are hidden from sight.
Hidden homelessness includes families living in temporary accommodation. We seek to move families into safe, sustainable tenancies where children can grow and thrive. Crucially, we will further develop services and systems to avoid them needing temporary accommodation in the first place. Our strategy aims to provide housing security for residents of all ages, contributing to them being able to live life to its fullest potential.
As a council - a public body with a legal responsibility to respond to homelessness – we recognise how we can improve the services that we offer. The staff that deliver these vital services have my thanks for the work that they do and for the way they continue to develop their offer for the people that they serve.
This strategy doesn’t set out every single action that we need to take but sets the tone for the way that we will deliver these services: with care, compassion and an intention to end homelessness, person by person.
I hope that you will be able to support the work to deliver this strategy, whether as an employer who provides mentorship to someone with lived experience, a landlord who help us keep a family in a tenancy, or a partner organisation working with us to provide crucial services.