Accommodation
Good quality accommodation is central to our strategy. The Homelessness Review identified the lack of local accommodation as a key barrier to ending homelessness, as well as a key contributor to the volume (and cost) of people accessing emergency accommodation at any given time.
This strand aims to:
- ensure that safe accommodation is available to everyone who needs it.
- ensure that accommodation is suitable to a household’s needs.
- ensure that people residing in short/medium-term accommodation (such as hostels) are supported to move on in a timely and sustainable manner.
Our work to secure good quality accommodation includes:
- Single Person Accommodation - reviewing the effectiveness of the current hostel pathway, developing accommodation pathways that incentivise employment, and extending the borough’s Housing First scheme.
- The Private Rented Sector (PRS) - re-engaging local private landlords and agents to make it easier for homeless households to find PRS properties and creating a new access fund to incentivise landlords and clients.
- Social and other housing - working with housing providers to reduce levels of empty and void properties, and creating a new pathway to support and accommodate substance users.