Item 10 - Access to Housing West Dunbartonshire
West Dunbartonshire Council · 1 May 2024
Back to Housing & Communities Committee — 1 May 2024 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by the Chief Officer, Housing and Employability Housing and Communities Committee: 01 May 2024 ___________________________________________________________________ Subject: Access to Housing in West Dunbartonshire Council 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide members with an update on Access to Housing in West Dunbartonshire. Access to Housing includes housing for those on the general list, transferring tenants and households experiencing homelessness. This report will cover the following. • Performance 2023/24, • Current housing demand and the needs, • 2024/25 Letting and future demand. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Housing and Communities Committee: (i) Note the current housing and homeless context and unprecedented pressures in West Dunbartonshire; (ii) Note that discussions will take place at a member/officer level to discuss the potential of a housing emergency declaration within West Dunbartonshire in advance of the summer recess; (iii) Note the performance of our allocations for 2023/34 (4.5 and 4.6); (iv) Note the current demand on our waiting list and level of needs and that there are 1342 (26%) applicants that have no recognised housing need; (v) Approve the revised target times (4.10) and agreed letting target (4.12 and 4.13) for those experiencing homelessness for 2024/25 to ensure we continue to meet our statutory obligations as a local authority; (vi) Note our updated Regulatory Engagement Plan (4.15); (vii) Note the agreed letting targets for transferring tenants and those on the general housing list (4.17) (viii) Note and agree actions in relation to transferring tenants in (4.18) and (4.19) of increasing the use of Homeswapper and creation of a transfer led lettings plan for new build completions, ITEM 10
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(i) Note the West Dunbartonshire Council funding allocation of £261k from the Distribution of Funding for Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs) funding for 2024/25 and approve that this allocation be utilised to deliver the Home at the Heart (WDC RRTP) priorities for 2024/25 and; (ii) Note in Section 7 the risks identified regarding letting and our legislative duty to provide the statutory homeless and housing access service. 3. Background 3.1 The current Allocations Policy was agreed by Committee in February 2022. The policy is due a review end of 2024 into early 2025. The policy is based on priority needs meaning those with the greatest need are housed. Appendix 1 details the categories of our Allocation Policy along with a Points Table summary. 3.2 Each year, to meet our commitments to all those in housing need and our statutory and legislative duties regarding homeless households, we agree our letting targets for those on the general waiting list, transfer list and those with homeless priority. The request for lets to homeless households is based on annual modelling based on backlog, incoming demand, and supply and turnover. 3.3 At the last Allocations elected members briefing in November 2023 it was agreed we would report annually our performance and to highlight any changes required within our Allocations Policy. 3.4 During the time of the current policy we experienced a worldwide pandemic that began in 2020, and a cost-of-living crisis which has impacted inflation and interest rates. This has led to extreme pressures on limited social housing across the country. More than ever the demand outstrips the supply of social housing. 3.5 Due to ongoing pressures impacting supply and increased demand the Scottish Housing Regulator declare a systematic failure in our Homeless system in December 2023 in a Thematic report. 3.6 This has also led to four Local Authorities declaring a housing emergency including two which neighbour West Dunbartonshire. The Chartered Institute of Housing (Scotland) has also declared a national housing emergency and several sector bodies are actively lobbying the Scottish Government to declare a national housing emergency. 3.7 Further discussion is planned at a Member/Officer level to discuss whether the declaration of a housing emergency is valid within the current housing context in West Dunbartonshire and depending on the outcome of these discussions a report will be provided to Council in advance of the summer recess. 3.8 Therefore more than ever housing is a key priority, and it is critical we are ensuring those with the greatest need are being housed.
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4. Main Issues 4.1 Our current approach to tackling homelessness is outlined in our Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) “Home at the Heart”. It was developed in response to a key recommendation from the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) that was adopted by the Scottish Government. Its aims are influenced by the Scottish Social Housing Charter and consistent with the Scottish Government’s “Ending Homelessness Together” approach. A progress report of Year 5 of “Home at the Heart” will be submitted to the Housing and Communities Committee in August 2024. This report will also highlight priority areas for 2024/25. 4.2 It was agreed that 64% of lets would go to homeless households, 20% of lets would then be given to those on the general waiting list, 2% of which would be to meet our commitment to young care leavers, and 5% to prevent youth homelessness. 4.3 The remaining 16% would go to current tenants of the waiting list, of which 3% to enable regeneration projects. 4.4 As of 21 March 2024, the following lets have been achieved; Category Total Lets % General 160 19 General (Young Care Leavers) 9 1% General (Youth Prevention) 12 1% Transfer 120 14% Transfer (Regeneration) 19 2% Homeless Priority 538 63% TOTAL 858 100% Appendix 1 details the categories and points summary of the Allocations policy. 4.5 Analysing the needs of those housed. A total of 122 applicants from the general waiting list have been housed as of 29th Feb 2024, their level of needs is as seen below; 1.6% 8.2% 27.9% 62.3% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 0 points 10-25 points 30-60 points 65 points and over General List
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Of the 122, 12 applicants had a low-level housing need (under 25) and 2 no housing need at all with 0 points. 4.6 A total of 109 current tenants (transfer) were rehoused and their level of need are seen as below; Of the 109, 35 applicants had low level of housing need with 7 have no need at all therefore an aspirational move was facilitated by the housing service. 4.7 When we look at need of households experiencing homelessness, we use a Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) model which considers the level of new homeless decisions, the backlog of homeless households, projected future demand, the number of lets made to households experiencing homelessness and projected letting activity. The RRTP model uses this data to determine the number of lets that will be required for households experiencing homelessness on an annual basis and determines a projected lettings % target. The table below shows the target for 2023/24 and the achieved targets along with RSL’s; Calculation of homeless lets required and % of expected letting activity required to meet need - split by LA & RSL Year 5 target Year 5 actual Lets required to meet demand 921 652 Split LA 576 538* Split RSL 311 149** % Allocation of lets required LA 69%*** 63% RSL 69% 51%** * As at 21/03/24 ** As at 31/12/24 – Q4 not *** 5% moved to Youth prevention Current Demand 4.8 As of 29th February 2024 there are 5,166 applicants on the housing waiting list plus an additional 470 current applications from households experiencing homelessness. The tables below show the points of those application by general and transferring applicants; 6.4% 25.7% 28.4% 39.4% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 0 points 10-25 points 30-60 points 65 points and over Transfer List
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These tables show that 23% of general applicants and 33% of transfer applicants have no housing need with 0 points and a further 28% of general and 40% transfer applicants have a low level of housing need. 4.9 Our main reasons and background to those presenting as homeless with West Dunbartonshire Council remain consistent with numbers as they are currently; • 23% of the presentations are youth presentations (under 25 predominantly relationship breakdowns), • 17% are those fleeing domestic abuse, • 30% present from a housing association home or a private rented home, and • 13% from West Dunbartonshire Council tenancies including those deemed at risk or experiencing domestic abuse. Letting to Households Experiencing Homelessness 4.10 As part of our annual modelling for our RRTP we reviewed the target times for those with no/low needs and due to the current housing access projections, we 874 1061 1319 490 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 0 Points 10 - 25 Points 30 - 60 Points 65 plus points General Waiting List Numbers 468 572 252 130 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 Points 10 - 25 Points 30 - 60 Points 65 plus points Transfer Waiting List Numbers
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are increasing our target times from 15 weeks (2023/24 target) to 16 weeks (2024/25 target) as our current time is 19 weeks. 4.11 External factors impacting void turnover, house building, and tenancy terminations means the expected supply in 2024/25 will be reduced for both Council and RSL lets. Currently modelling suggests that due to an increased backlog, increased demand and reduced available turnover that for 2024/25 for West Dunbartonshire, 127% of all available social tenancies inclusive of conversions and housing first allocations will require to be allocated to households experiencing homelessness to ensure targeted reductions in temporary accommodation and faster access to settled accommodation is achieved. 4.12 While this cannot be arithmetically achieved, and recognising other housing need factors it would not be practical to have 100% allocation of lets to households experiencing homelessness. Therefore, we will apply 64% lettings target to homeless households. This objective was supported by the Housing Improvement Board in March 2024 and a similar commitment of 69% will be sought from our RSL partners via their annual RRTP Contribution Statements. Calculation of homeless lets required and % of expected letting activity required to meet need - split by LA & RSL Year 6 (24/25) Lets required for to assist meeting demand 932 Split LA 621 Split RSL 311 Projected turnover Year 6 Split LA 750 Split RSL 350 % Allocation of lets required Year 6 LA 64%* RSL 69% *5% is going to general youth homeless prevention and is included in lettings information above 4.13 As detailed 64%/69% is not enough to fully meet demand and clear the backlog of households in temporary accommodation and will result in a shortfall of around 688 lets and 110 additional households in temporary accommodation. The backlog includes 265 households in temporary accommodation with a total of 84 children. There are approximately 158 children in our wider homelessness backlog. By not fully meeting our demand means households will spend longer in temporary accommodation than they or the Council would like. 4.14 A shortfall on lets can also lead to a requirement to increase the number of temporary accommodation units. If we required to do this, it will reduce lets available for mainstream offers and would also require additional staff resources to manage the additional units.
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4.15 Regulatory Engagement The Scottish Housing Regulator has updated engagement plan in April 2024 for the year ahead which will have been published in April. They have stated; During 2023/24, we reviewed and compared the data for all local authorities from the Scottish Government’s national homelessness statistics. We also spoke to all local authorities to gather further information and assurance about their homelessness services. To assess the risks to people who are threatened with or experiencing homelessness we will engage with all local authorities during 2024/25 with a focus on the provision of appropriate temporary accommodation. This reinforces the priority and importance of meeting our aims within our RRTP. 4.16 The Housing and Communities Committee Convener has engaged with the Housing Minister and has maintained the Council’s commitment to ending homelessness through the following; “Continue our approach and commitment to ending homelessness and maintain high levels of allocating council homes to homeless households, as we referenced at our meeting, we require this commitment to be matched by our housing association partners which at this point is inconsistent and would welcome your influence to ensure all parts of the social housing sector are working collaboratively to minimise time spent in temporary accommodation”. Transferring Tenants 4.17 It has been agreed that for 2024/25 lets to transferring tenants would be increased from 16% to 18%, which means that 18% for those on the general waiting list. Those general lets include lets made through the Council’s ongoing participation in humanitarian resettlement schemes which we project to be around 50 households in 2024/25 through ongoing participation in the existing schemes. 4.18 In addition to this increase to further meet the needs of those of our current tenants it has been agreed to further explore ways to increase the use of Homeswapper which enables social housing tenants to exchange properties with other tenants to meet their needs. Mutual exchange also does not come with any void repair costs which is an additional benefit to all tenants. All Council tenants who apply for housing will be automatically enrolled on the Homeswapper scheme and will be supported to access a home exchange which will meet their housing need. 4.19 Council new build properties will mainly be let to transfer tenants in the first instance to promote turnover of properties. The investment approach to transfer led new build allocations is that we work to create allocation chains from each mainstream new build and will be achieved through the delivery of a lettings plan for each new build development, this will be in place for our Clydebank East development where we anticipate the first handover of homes in late Summer. We anticipate that a minimum of 70% of new build lets will be made
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to transfer applicants in all our future new build developments. Specific needs properties will be excluded from this approach and will be allocated to the household in greatest housing need regardless of current housing tenure. This wider approach will be linked to our current downsizing incentive scheme. 4.20 The approaches outlined above ensure we are meeting the housing needs of our current tenants. Positively increased lets to transferring tenants will add to more turnover in homes being available but may lead to increased voids expenditure. However, this will be closely monitored, and all transfer applicants’ homes will be visited in advance of any anticipated transfer allocation to ensure the void expenditure is minimised. 5. People Implications 5.1 Any additional posts required to strengthen the team will be recruited in line with the Council’s existing recruitment policy and will be funded from the Scottish Government funding for the provision of homelessness prevention and response. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications 6.1 In March 2024, West Dunbartonshire Council was advised that our allocation of the distribution of £8 million revenue funding to fund rapid rehousing transition plans (RRTPs) for 2024-25 was £261k. This represents a modest increase in the allocation for 2023-24. The agreed funding distribution is as follows: • a funding floor which ensures that every local authority in Scotland receives at least £50,000 in 2024-25 towards the implementation of their RRTP. • the three-year average of unintentionally homelessness assessments continues to be used for distribution. This comes from published national homelessness statistics (HL1). 6.2 Any increased transfer lets means there will be additional spends on voids this will be closely monitored to manage this risk. 6.3 If we require to take additional temporary accommodation units there will be costs to the service to do so along with additional staffing costs if we require more staff if units increase. It also means available lets will be reduced because of being converted to temporary accommodation use. 6.4 If we increase the use of Home Swapper, as it will mean current tenants mutual exchanging this does not have any add on costs to the void budget. 6.5 There are no procurement implications in terms of this report. 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 As detailed in 3.5 and 3.6 we are in them midst of a national housing crisis and figures reinforce that our demand far outweighs the supply. If we are unable to house the demand presenting as homeless which can impact on increased use
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of Unsuitable Accommodation and potentially failing to offer any accommodation could lead to full scale failure to meet our homeless duty. 7.2 We currently have Regulatory engagement as stated in 4.15 which includes our homeless service and in particular our temporary accommodation. The risk if breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order continue or we begin failing to offer temporary accommodation then our engagement is at risk of being increased. 7.3 The targets agreed in 4.12 do not meet demand therefore it is highly likely that times spent in temporary accommodation will beginning increasing including for those households with children. 8 Environmental Sustainability 8.1 The delivery of new homes referred to within this paper are within the approved More Homes zero carbon approach. Our current and future approach to strategic housing asset management will continue to prioritise a ‘zero carbon’ approach to decision making and deliverability and this will be done the aims of the Housing Asset Management Strategy and the Council’s Climate Change Strategy. 9. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) 9.1 There are no negative equalities impacts due to this update. An EIA screening will be carried out for any policy changes. 10. Consultation 10.1 The first draft of our RRTP was developed in collaboration with key partners, including the Health and Social Care Partnership, local Registered Social Landlords and third sector organisations, via a series of well attended stakeholder events held in November and December 2018. 10.2 Consultation and communication have continued since the submission of the first iteration of the RRTP through the Housing Solutions Partnership. Further engagement has also taken place with other local landlords via the Strategic Housing Providers Forum, engagement has continued with the Health and Social Care Partnership and a dialogue with the West Dunbartonshire Tenants and Residents Organisation (WDTRO) regarding the implementation of the RRTP and Housing First has also taken place and will continue to do so at the regular liaison meetings. 10.3 Consultation of tenants, housing applicants and wider stakeholders was carried out in 2021 during the last review of our Allocations policy which was subsequently agreed by Committee in February 2022. 11. Strategic Assessment 11.1 Having considered the Council's strategic priorities, this report contributes significantly to all strategic priorities.
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Peter Barry Chief Officer, Housing and Employability Date: 17th April 2024 ___________________________________________________________________ Person to Contact: John Kerr – Housing Development and Homelessness Manager, Housing Development and Homelessness Team, Housing and Employability, telephone: 07793717981, email: john.kerr@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Claire McKay – Housing Development Co-ordinator, Housing Development and Homelessness Team, Housing and Employability, telephone: 07793717981, email: Claire. McKay @west-dunbarton.gov.uk Appendices: 1. Allocations Categories and Points Summary Background Papers: West Dunbartonshire Council Allocations policy “Home at the Heart” – Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan Wards Affected: All