Agenda item

1.               That Cabinet approve a drawdown of £50K from the Homelessness Prevention Fund to fund the initiatives set out in Section 2 of this report.

 

2.               That Cabinet also approve a drawdown of £45k from the Homelessness Prevention Fund to fund two posts in the team (Private Sector Housing Partnership Officer and Lead Officer Private Sector Housing) plus training for officers, in order to ensure that the Council has the resources needed to carry out the initiatives set out in Section 2 of this report.

 

1.               That Cabinet approve a drawdown of £50K from the Homelessness Prevention Fund to fund the initiatives set out in Section 2 of this report.

 

2.               That Cabinet also approve a drawdown of £45k from the Homelessness Prevention Fund to fund two posts in the team (Private Sector Housing Partnership Officer and Lead Officer Private Sector Housing) plus training for officers, in order to ensure that the Council has the resources needed to carry out the initiatives set out in Section 2 of this report.

 

Reason for Decision

 

To set out a proposal to Cabinet for the drawdown of funds, from grants made to the Council as ‘Homelessness Prevention Funds’, to be used by the Council’s Strategic Housing Service to fund homelessness prevention initiatives.

 

Implications

 

Financial

 

The Strategic Housing Service is proposing a drawdown of £50,000 from the ‘Homelessness Prevention Fund’, which is government grant ring-fenced to be spent on schemes to prevent homelessness.

 

The £50,000 is the total remaining grant not already committed to spend by the service.  The grants making up this pot are not automatically re-occurring, and therefore unless the Council receives further grants, continuation of these schemes would have to be reviewed in terms of value for money and savings achieved. 

 

Value for Money

 

The Council’s Housing Advice and Options team provide advice and options to prevent homelessness in situations where the current home is no longer appropriate.  Where possible (but only where the home is safe), officers will first seek to prevent homelessness by stabilising a household’s current accommodation through mediation with family or a private landlord.

 

The Council’s private rented sector deposit guarantee scheme ‘Help to Rent’ is the main homelessness prevention scheme available to officers trying to prevent homelessness in situations where the current home is no longer appropriate. 

 

A household that becomes homeless carries a significant cost to the Council in terms of providing a temporary accommodation placement and managing the licence, investigating the homelessness case, providing welfare and support, and the clearance and void maintenance costs after move-on.   

 

The private rented sector is very strong in Dacorum and landlords are able to set high market rents that out-price most prospective tenants on low incomes and/or in receipt of benefits. 

 

Termination of an ‘Assured Shorthold Tenancy’ (AST, the standard form of tenancy used in the private sector) is increasing and is now the main reason for homeless presentations to the Council.  In 2009 and 2015 this reason for homelessness accounted for 11% and 50% respectively of all homeless duties awarded by the Council.

 

Prevention of homelessness is value for money and the Strategic Housing Service is proposing to allocate funds as follows:

 

·        £10,000 for a cash incentive scheme to attract landlords to work in partnership with the Council’s Help to Rent scheme.

·        £30,000 to be available to officers for rent in advance/bridging deposit payments;

·        £5,000 to pay for travel arrangements; and

·        £5,000 to cover other emergency provision.

 

Risk Implications

 

Rogue private landlords

 

The Council is aware that among the many good landlords with properties that they are happy to let at more affordable prices, there are those rogue landlords who purposefully target the bottom end of the market in order to exploit financially vulnerable people.  The Council is committed to carrying out a ‘fit and proper person’ test on all prospective landlords and getting them to sign a ‘fit and proper person’ statement.  The Help to Rent team also has a good working arrangement with the Council’s Environmental Health team who will take referrals to investigate a landlord if there is evidence they are acting unlawfully.

 

Fraudulent homeless applications

 

The Council receives a high number of presentations from households either homeless or under threat of homelessness.   Among these there may be those making false declarations about their circumstances in order to access assistance with housing.

 

The Strategic Housing Service works closely with the Corporate Anti-Fraud team to identify households that it suspects have committed fraudulent activity.  This will then be investigated and may lead to criminal proceedings.

 

Equalities Implications

It has been identified that young people, and young lone parents in particular, struggle to access the private rented housing market in Dacorum.  As part of delivering the initiatives proposed in this report the Council wants to work to mitigate some of the negative perceptions among landlords about renting to young people or people on benefits. 

 

No reasons to expect discrimination from the service have been identified that the Council does not have processes in place to mitigate.

 

Health And Safety Implications

The Help to Rent service is committed to maintaining its relationship with the Council’s Environmental Health service so that they are aware of the private sector properties in the scheme, and work in partnership if any health and safety concerns are raised relating to properties.

 

Corporate Objectives

Affordable Housing

 

Advice

 

The Assistant Director for Housing noted that the purpose of the report was to request the drawdown of funds, from grants made to the Council as ‘Homelessness Prevention Funds’, to be used by the Council’s Strategic Housing Service to fund homelessness prevention initiatives. He explained that homelessness was increasing and more people were coming to the council to seek advice and accommodation, therefore investment was key.

Statistics were given to the committee highlighting that 127 people had sought advice during September 2014 and this had risen to 209 people during September in 2015.

In addition 38 people had sought accommodation as of September 2014 and year to date in September 2015, this had risen to 142. The trend was increasing and the Council had to manage this with its own stock and Bed and Breakfasts.

 

The Portfolio Holder for Residents & Corporate Services referred to section 2.1 of the report and asked what the £5,000 to pay for travel arrangements and £5,000 to cover other emergency provision included.

The Strategic Housing Team Leader explained the travel arrangements could cover train or taxi fares, which most of the time were within Hertfordshire. On occasions this could have to stretch to Birmingham or Manchester. Emergency provision could involve costs to assist a victim of flooding or fire and require one off payments for emergency items such as warm clothing.

 

It was noted that St Albans council were referring people to Dacorum to be placed in local Bed and Breakfasts.

The Strategic Housing Team Leader confirmed that councils were made aware if others were making placements within the local area. She knew that St Albans were currently experiencing difficulties.

 

The leader of the council asked if under the landlord incentive scheme, could landlords terminate the contract after 6 months and then re-sign, in order to receive the incentives.

The Strategic Housing Team Leader said this could not be done and the process would ensure it could not be exploited.

 

Consultation

Consultation took place with:

·       Cllr Margaret Griffiths

·       Elliott Brooks - Assistant Director for Housing

·        All Housing Service Team Leaders and Group Managers

 

Voting

 

None.