The Committee is asked to consider the Homelessness Strategy.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities, Head of Housing, Economy and Community Services, and the Housing Options Manager have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities, the Head of Housing, the Economy and Community Services, Housing Options Manager, and the Strategic Housing and Health Manager to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities introduced the report which provided an overview of the work currently underway to develop, the Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for Swale for 2019-2023.  The Council had commissioned external consultants HQN to work with the Council on producing the Strategy.  The Cabinet Member stated that six months into their work the consultants had found “pockets of excellence” within the Council’s Housing services, and some areas where things could be done slightly differently.

The Cabinet Member reported that HQN had identified the housing issues affecting Swale, and from that four objectives and eight priorities had been identified, these were set-out on page two of the Committee report. 

The Head of Housing, Economy and Community Services spoke about the excellent work provided by housing.  She explained that the Strategy would include the issues affecting Swale, not just national issues.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities asked Members to consider what should be included in the strategy.

Members considered the report, and in the discussion that followed, the following points were made:

·        Considered the report was rather “thin” and made a lot of generalities and gave no measurement of local issues so further development required;

·        would like a timetable of action to include what was likely to happen and when;

·        why were consultants used?  We have a Policy unit at the Council so could this not have been done in-house?

·        required further explanation on SMEs and the point being made?

·        need to explore the reasons why people have become homeless;

·        consider that Swale should seize the initiative and develop its own social housing and not outsource to third parties;

·        Swale’s Local Plan should be guiding this strategy;

·        need to ensure that the right type of property was being provided within the Borough, as there was a lack of bungalows being built;

·        option 3 needed to be expanded to include balance of types of housing;

·        needed to include high price of established sheltered accommodation;

·        objectives needed to be amended so it was clear that the Council were aiming for upper quartile improvements not just average;

·        need to ensure that “rogue” landlords were on-board to ensure living conditions were improved;

·        need to address the two-month a year homelessness issue caused by the ten-month occupancy rule on holiday camps, and the problems it creates every year for the Council’s housing department;

·        welcomed improving social housing conditions, but how could you ensure this stays in place?;

·        need to ensure that social housing properties were not sub-let;

·        would like to see emergency out of hours procedures included;

·        need to find a way of ensuring the final strategy was clear and simple;

·        how did the strategy deal with homeless persons from London re-located to Swale?;

·        there was a clear link between planning, the local plan and the housing strategy;

·        how much were vulnerable households increasing by in Swale?;

·        what stakeholders had been consulted?;

·        persons released from prison with nowhere to go should be included as this was a big issue in Swale;

·        more dialogue required with all housing associations to ensure their properties were up-to-scratch;

·        important to identify who were the homeless and why they were homeless as this would help to provide the solution;

·        sign-posting to places where people could receive help such as a decent meal should be included;

·        need to make provision for affordable housing in large scale developments and monies for providing this secured from any Section 106 Agreements;

·        there needed to be closer working between the housing and planning departments;

·        the Housing Needs Assessment needed to sit side-by-side with this strategy; and

·        need to look at housing solutions and be open to ideas and take a more holistic approach to reducing homelessness.

In response to queries, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities explained that the Council’s housing department had not had the capacity to commence work on the Strategy due to work created following the imposition of the HRA legislation, so external consultants were used.    The Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities confirmed that planning services were being consulted on the strategy and that this was a four year work programme. 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities reported that £153,000 bid had been submitted to the Rough Sleepers Initiative Team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for aid to assist rough sleepers.  He advised that support was in place for rough sleepers during periods of severe weather.  He confirmed that the stakeholder event held on 15 January 2019 had been attended by various stakeholders including representatives from: health providers; police; private landlords; Kent County Council; and principal housing associations.

Following a request from the Chairman, the Housing Options Manager agreed to provide figures of the number of vulnerable households in the Borough.  In response to a query from a Member, the Housing Options Manager stated that whilst Councils from London Boroughs were able to offer large money incentives to private landlords to take their residents, they could not offer the support that the local Council could, however she was not aware that this was a huge problem in the Borough. 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities thanked Members and welcomed the points raised.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities, the Head of Housing, Economy and Community Services, the Housing Options Manager, and the Stategic Housing and Health Manager for attending the meeting.