Agenda item

To receive the report of Richard Sorensen, Head of the Housing Advisory Service.

Richard Sorensen, Head of the Housing Advisory Service presented the report highlighting the following:

1.    In 2020 Enfield Council published its Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy. This outlined and ambitious plan to end homelessness and rough sleeping in the borough.

2.    In October 2020, the Council launched the Housing Advisory Service (HAS) to meet the challenges set out in the Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy. This brought together all of the services offered to homeless households and expanded prevention activities.

3.    Three years into the strategy a review has now taken place and the report details the progress made covering each of the key workstreams.

4.    The impact of the new service and its new focus on prevention was immediate. Despite a consistent rise in the number of households approaching the Council for help, the number of households needing emergency housing has been dramatically reduced. In October 2019, 38% of households approaching the Council were going straight into temporary accommodation. By October 2022, this figure had dropped to just over 6%.

5.    This focus on prevention has meant developing a new way of working both across departmental boundaries but also externally with other agencies. The Housing Advisory Service has staff collated within a wide variety of partner organisations including job centres, courts, probation, and Children & Family Services.

6.    In terms of treating people with empathy, dignity, and respect there are a range of different solutions and different ways of accessing services. When the strategy was initially implemented the Street Homelessness Service consisted of two members of staff. Since then, this service is fully funded through successful bids from external funding streams and grant raising activities and is now one of the largest and successful teams within the Housing Advisory Service, having taken rough sleeping from its initial high of 79 to 5, which is a remarkable achievement, especially at a time when rough sleeping is on the increase across the rest of London.

7.    The council’s Street Homelessness Service has found, visited, supported, and housed 840 rough sleepers in Enfield since April 2020.  The latest government figures showed the number of rough sleepers in the borough fell by 48% between Autumn 2021 and Autumn 2022. This was the highest reduction in rough sleeping achieved in the UK and came despite a 34% increase across London as a whole.

8.    The context within which the service operates has changed. The strategy was drawn up pre-covid and since then there has pretty much been a collapse in affordable and private rented sector housing and the supply of accommodation over the past two years which is affordable in Enfield has decreased by approximately 90% with an 84% drop in sully since April last year and this has impacted on the ability to secure longer term homes in the borough.

9.    Enfield council’s focus on prevention has meant that there has not been a sharp rise in the number of households in temporary accommodation compared which the national picture which shows a sharp rise in the period to the end of September 2022, which is the latest data available. Richard added however that there will come a point when these efforts run dry, and the figures will start to climb unless an alternative source of accommodation can be found.

10. In response to a question from Cllr Guzel regarding how families who are served a Section 21 eviction notice can make themselves known to the HAS for support and guidance, Richard advised that contact can me made either by email or phone, details of which are available on the council website. There are also some suggested email headings for people to use to enable the service to then make an initial assessment as to how urgent the case is. Contact will be made within 24 hours of receipt of the email and, depending on the severity of the case, this response time may even be quicker. Richard agreed to send the email link to Cllr Guzel.

Action: Richard Sorensen

11. In response to a further question from Cllr Guzel regarding an online direct referral form, it was advised that the website is in the process of being revamped and this will include an online referral form and it was hoped that this would be launched in early April.

12. Further information was provided on the new inhouse IT system called Housing Jigsaw, which is a much better case management system which can also be made available to residents when a case is ongoing, which will allow them access to the system to upload documents, contact their case worker and provide an audit trail on each individual case.

13. In response to Cllr Chamberlain’s question regarding how the council identify and track rough sleepers, Malcom Dabbs, Street Homelessness Service Manager explained that there are two ways of obtaining this intelligence. The first is by working closely with partnerships such as the police, parks and cemeteries and social services as this provides a good network for sharing information. And secondly Street Link, which is a website, mobile phone app and telephone service through which people can take positive action when they see someone sleeping rough by sending an alert that connects that person to local outreach services for support.

14. Following further questions from Members regarding the main barriers to taking rough sleepers off the streets, Malcom advised that not all rough sleepers are willing to accept offers of accommodation and help and often linked to this are complex immigration status, trust issues with authorities as well as mental health issues.

15. Officers provided information on Beam, an online platform that crowdfunds for homeless people and supports them into stable work. In 2020, Enfield council launched a new partnership with Beam. This was to assist residents to access training and employment opportunities. This partnership has grown from an initial pilot and now covers the full journey from training to employment and moving out of temporary accommodation.

16. In response to Cllr Abey’s question regarding what demands could be made to Central Government to try and alleviate some of the pressures outlines in the report, Officers said that the whole system needs to be looked at, modernised, streamlined, and made fit for purpose. A rise in housing allowance is long overdue as is the need for higher grants. Increasing the pace of housing supply would always be a key ask too.