Homelessness in Renfrewshire and Review of Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan - Tom update 081024
Renfrewshire Council · 29 October 2024
Back to Communities and Housing Policy Board — 29 October 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
___________________________________________________________________ To: Communities and Housing Policy Board On: 29 October 2024 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Homelessness in Renfrewshire and Review of Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The Policy Board has been provided with more regular updates this year on homelessness in Renfrewshire due to the scale of the local and national social housing pressures and increasing demands for housing support. 1.2 This report provides further details on homelessness, the current and emerging pressures in Renfrewshire, as well as the measures being taken to address these. 1.3 The Scottish Government required all local authorities to prepare Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans for the 5 year period from 2019 – 2024. This report provides a further review of Renfrewshire’s RRTP. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations It is recommended that the Communities and Housing Policy Board: 2.1 Note the continuing local and national pressures that are resulting in an increase in homeless applications and demand for housing support, and the impacts these increases are currently having and may have in the future. _________________________________________________________
Page 2
3. Background 3.1 As reported to Policy Board meetings in previous years, the annual number of statutorily homeless households in Renfrewshire generally remained consistent and tended to be within the 750 – 850 range up until 2021. 3.2 There has however been a steady, stepped increase in homeless applications since 2020/21, with the number of applications in 2023/24 exceeding 1,000, as was forecast in updates to the Policy Board in the last financial year. 3.3 Policy Board Reports throughout this year have detailed the reasons behind the increase in homelessness over the last 3 years and the more recent emerging housing pressures which all largely stem from the impacts during the COVID recovery years, pressures arising from the cost-of-living crisis, the impact of the migration and asylum humanitarian programmes, a general slowing down in the turnover rate of social rented housing, and the impact in Renfrewshire since the suspension of the ‘local connection’ criteria for homeless applicants in December 2022. 3.4 Local authorities across Scotland continue to experience significant pressures in meeting the demand for social housing and there remains clear evidence nationally of rising homeless presentations, record numbers in temporary accommodation and increasing waiting times for those in housing need. 3.5 A more recent emerging pressure is linked to the measures which have been in place nationally to protect tenants living in the private rented sector (PRS) which had limited the number of homeless applications from those leaving that sector over the last few years. There is growing evidence of an increase in demand for housing options advice from private rented sector tenants who may lose their accommodation once Tribunal hearings are held. There is a significant backlog for Tribunal cases (where landlords are seeking to repossess their properties), and our Homeless Services team are working closely with partners such as Citizen Advice Scotland to gauge the likely demand for accommodation and support from PRS tenants moving forward. The on-going deployment of additional temporary posts in Homeless Services and Housing Support teams over the last 2 years has and will continue to help the Council meet the needs of PRS tenants. 3.6 Renfrewshire continues to experience increasing homelessness, see para 3.4, and it is clear that our Homeless & Housing Support Services and partners will continue to find it a significant challenge to provide both temporary and permanent accommodation for everyone in housing need and provide the support they require, in line with our statutory duties. 3.7 This mirrors the national picture, where 12 local authorities have now declared housing emergencies, as well the Scottish Government’s announcement in May of a National Housing Emergency. We are awaiting announcements on any associated new guidance and / or measures to support Councils in tackling and preventing homelessness but continue to monitor the local position very closely. A further report will be submitted to the Policy Board
Page 3
should the position be reached where statutory duties in relation to meeting the needs of those who are homeless cannot be met. 3.8 Whilst the challenges are and will remain significant, there are still some positive performance indicators for Renfrewshire in terms of how the changes in the nature and scale of homelessness are being tackled (see para 3.4) 3.9 This includes an increase in the proportion of general lets to those who are statutorily homeless by the Council and RSLs, which has supported a reduction in the numbers placed in B&B to zero by the start of September. The Policy Board approved a recommendation in March 2024 that the target for lets to the Statutory Homeless Group would increase from 49% in 2023/24 to 55% for 2024/25, and that this be reviewed in September 2024. It was agreed that if any change to this target is proposed, authorisation will be sought from the Policy Board at its meeting of 29 October 2024, however the view is that no change is required to this target for the remainder of 2024/25. 3.10 As well as this strong focus on letting social rented properties to those who are homeless, there are other positive measures in place in order to meet the increasing homeless and housing support demands and these are incorporated in Renfrewshire’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) 2019 – 2024. A summary of a recent review of our RRTP and the homelessness statistics recently published by the Scottish Government is covered in the following section. ___________________________________________________________________ 4. Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan 4.1 Progress with the implementation of Renfrewshire’s initial 5-year Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) 2019 – 2024 has been regularly reported to the Policy Board, and our RRTP has supported the upscaling of a Housing First approach to support those who are homeless as well as minimising the time those who are homeless have to spend in temporary accommodation, and seeking a stepped increase in the number / proportion of lets to homeless applicants from the Council and RSL’s. 4.2 An announcement of further funding from the Scottish Government to support the delivery of RRTPs for a further year in 2024/25 has now been made, with £190k allocated to Renfrewshire. This is the same level of funding as awarded in the previous five years, and will largely allow the continuation of established initiatives which have been detailed in previous Policy Board reports and are in line with the RRTP guidance: • 3 temporary posts which focus on resettling homeless applicants transitioning from temporary accommodation to new tenancies, • Say Women project which provides support for young women (16- 25 years old) who have been subjected to sexual violence and are
Page 4
at risk of homelessness, • Upscaling the Housing First approach both in-house with our Housing Support team and with partners such as Turning Point Scotland and Blue Triangle Housing Association from 13 service users being supported at any one time via the wraparound support approach in 2019, to 95 in September 2024. 4.3 Statistics on homelessness performance across all Scottish local authorities in 2023/24 has just been published by the Scottish Government at the end of September 2024. An initial summary of the key statistics which emerge is : • Renfrewshire experienced a 10% increase in homeless applications against a 4% increase nationally. • The average length of time spent in temporary accommodation for all homeless households in Renfrewshire was 114 days, compared to a national average of 226 days. (the figure for households with children in temporary accommodation was 98 days compared to a national average of 375 days). • The number of breaches of Unsuitable Accommodation Orders (where homeless households stay in B&B or hostels for more than 7 days) increased from 60 in 2022/23 to 110 in 2023/24. The number of breaches nationally increased by 41%. • No households with children in Renfrewshire were placed in B&B accommodation. • The number of homeless households moving into a social housing tenancy in Renfrewshire increased from 488 in 2022/23 to 576 in 2023/24. ___________________________________________________________________ 5 Housing (Scotland) Bill, 2024 5.1 A new Housing Bill was published March 2024 which aims to, amongst other things, help prevent homelessness. It is proposed that the Housing (Scotland) Bill will introduce an ‘ask and act’ duty on public bodies, such as health boards, Police Scotland and RSL’s to ask about a person’s housing situation and act to avoid them becoming homeless wherever possible. The Bill also seeks to reform provision for people threatened with homelessness up to six months ahead (currently Councils can consider homeless applications up to 2 months ahead of settled accommodation being likely to be lost). 5.2 There is a degree of concern that the provisions above may lead to an increase in referrals for help, advice, information and temporary accommodation to local authorities homeless teams, and the provisions are currently now subject to public consultation and scrutiny by the Scottish
Page 5
Parliament, along with other areas covered by the Bill including proposal for provisions for tenants experiencing domestic abuse and a New Deal for Tenants which includes long term rent controls for private tenancies. 5.3 A further report on all the Housing Bill proposals and consultation will be submitted to a future Board meeting once the Scottish Government completes the consultation phase. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial – None 2. HR & Organisational Development - none 3. Community/Council Planning – • Our Renfrewshire is fair - those who are homeless will be provided with housing options. • Building strong, safe and resilient communities – meeting the needs of those who are homeless and providing access to settled housing helps to support communities. • Tackling inequality, ensuring opportunities for all – those who are in housing need will be provided with settled housing options. • Working together to improve outcomes – we will be working with partners to improve outcomes for those in housing need. 4. Legal - none. 5. Property/Assets – none 6. Information Technology - none 7. Equality & Human Rights (a) The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report because it is for noting only. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety - none 9. Procurement - none 10. Risk - none. 11. Privacy Impact - none
Page 6
12. Climate Risk - none 13. Children’s Rights – We will ensure that children in homeless households are provided with accommodation that meets their needs. 14. Cosla Policy Position – not applicable _______________________________________________________ List of Background Papers (a) Background paper 1 ‘Homelessness in Renfrewshire – Update ’Communities &Housing Policy Board on 21 May. 2024. (b) Background paper 2 ‘Homelessness in Renfrewshire – Update ’Communities & Housing Policy Board on 16 January 2024. (c) Background paper 3 ‘RRTP and Homelessness Update’, Communities & Housing Board on 25 October 2022. (d) Background paper 4 ‘ Homelessness Update’ Communities, Housing & Planning Policy Board on 15 March 2022. (e) Background paper 5 ‘Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan and Homelessness Update’ Communities, Housing & Planning Policy Board on 17 August, 2021. (f) Background Paper 6 ‘Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan – funding update’ Communities, Housing & Planning Policy Board on 19 January 2021. The foregoing background papers will be retained within Housing Services for inspection by the public for the prescribed period of four years from the date of the meeting. The contact officer within the service is Tom Irvine, Homeless & Housing Support Services Manager, Tom.irvine@renfrewshire.gov.uk. ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Tom Irvine Tom.irvine@renfrewshire.gov.uk