The new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy
Homelessness and rough sleeping are part of wide set of challenges.
The legal definition of homelessness is that a household has no home in the UK or anywhere else in the world available and reasonable to occupy. The following housing circumstances are examples of homelessness:
- Rooflessness (without a shelter of any kind, sleeping rough)
- Houselessness (with a place to sleep but temporary, in institutions or a shelter)
- Living in insecure housing (threatened with severe exclusion due to insecure tenancies, eviction, domestic violence, or staying with family and friends known as ‘sofa surfing’)
- Living in inadequate housing (in caravans on illegal campsites, in unfit housing, in extreme overcrowding)
The causes of homelessness are typically described as either structural or individual and can be interrelated and reinforced by one another. Causes and their relationship vary across the life course.
Structural factors include:
- Poverty
- Inequality
- Housing supply and affordability
- Unemployment or insecure employment
- Access to social security
Individual factors include:
- Poor physical health
- Mental health problems, including the consequences of adverse childhood experiences
- Experience of violence, abuse, neglect, harassment or hate crime
- Drug and alcohol problems (including when co-occurring with mental health problems)
- Bereavement
- Relationship breakdown
- Experience of care, prison or time serving in the Armed forces
- Refugees
For our new Strategy we will be focussing on Housing and Homelessness. This new strategy will consider interventions, services, challenges and accommodation provision for people who are homeless (in all its forms) or threatened with homelessness.
Through delivering our new strategy and action plan we will continue to meet the duties placed upon us by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and the Housing Act 1996 (as amended). Preventing Homelessness is a critical due to the impact on lives of people affecting by homelessness and the resource implications associated with responding to it. We will work in partnership with other providers and stakeholders to prevent and alleviate homelessness. The Positive Pathways model will be used as our roadmap for addressing homelessness and rough sleeping within the city, working in partnership with statutory services, commissioned partners, the voluntary and community sector, and people with lived experience of homelessness.
Over the next 5 years and beyond we want to ensure that we are equipped and able to focus on prevention and recovery – whilst still responding to crisis. We know that by working up stream to prevent people becoming homeless or those with a history of rough sleeping returning to the street and by ensuring people are supported in their recovery we will reduce the need for crisis intervention.
To achieve our prevention objectives and priorities it is crucial that we work in tandem with a range of partners including, NHS organisations, Ministry of Justice (MOJ), substance misuse services, advice agencies and internal partners as well as accommodation providers in the city to be able to identify and respond quickly to those on the cusp of homelessness and rough sleeping.
In terms of recovery, connecting people with services and into their communities is key to sustainability of both their home and their own well-being.
We will use data and qualitative information to inform our practices and priorities to ensure our approach is effective and achieves the best possible outcomes for the widest possible group.
3.1 Positive pathway
Everyone needs somewhere to live and good housing underpins success in other areas of a person's life. The Positive Pathway is about avoiding housing crisis and trying to work to ensure that homelessness is not part peoples life experiences. Too often different parts of the wider “systems “work in ‘silos’, but homelessness relies on working together, not only within local authorities but also with other public bodies, voluntary organisations, individuals and families. The Positive Pathway framework does not look at housing and homelessness in isolation because addressing homelessness is more challenging than simply finding housing. The objective of the pathway is to move from a crisis response to upstream prevention and effective supply to help people move on from homelessness and tenancy sustainment.
Prevention and early intervention as defined in the positive pathway are an important part of this strategy. There are very real and re-occurring reasons why people are at risk of homelessness or end up homeless. The solution needs to be a cross-cutting, council-wide and collaborative, multi-agency approach. Some people also need more support than others to build skills and confidence to maintain a tenancy, so we want to make sure our housing pathways are simple, clear and effective. Whether you are a care leaver, somebody leaving an institution such as prison, a single person sleeping rough, or a family you should be able to find out and have a voice in your journey to a place you can call home.
Where homelessness cannot be prevented it is imperative that there is effective and appropriate targeted and crisis support, for anyone in Coventry whether through the council or one of its partners. Moving on from homelessness is challenging, there is significant demand and limited supply of available social and affordable rented housing in the city. The difference between the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates in the city and the average rent means the private rented sector is difficult to access for those in receipt of benefits or low incomes.
Once a person has moved into accommodation, tenancy sustainment is key to breaking the cycle and the revolving door of homelessness. Therefore, we must ensure there are appropriate and robust move on options for people and we work collectively across the city to ensure tenancy sustainment.