Housing Strategy

Priority 2 - Work to Ensure Homelessness is Prevented, Brief, Rare and Unrepeated

What the evidence says

‘recent impact of Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis has exacerbated the pressure faced by local households’

 

‘……local households are unable to access affordable housing…’

 

‘…..risk of increasing levels of homelessness within the county, with significant pressure extending to homelessness services’

 

‘….in recent years the proportion of households in urgent ‘need’ of housing has increased’

 

‘…a greater proportion of lettings by Pembrokeshire County Council and its Registered Social partners going to households in the highest bandings of need….’

 

‘…….significant increase in the use of bed and breakfast and hostel accommodation’

 

‘…the need for temporary accommodation………imposes both staffing and financial resource pressures on the council’

 

‘…increased numbers of households to which a final s75 duty to provide temporary accommodation is owed…’

 

‘…whilst there were 76 people temporarily housed in March 2019 the number had grown to 654 by May 2023…’

 

‘……significant shift in the proportion of offers going to households who are owed the full homelessness duty…’

 

‘…….Welsh Government remains committed to the ‘no-one left out’ policy approach aligned with the Rapid Re-housing strategy’

 

Summary analysis

The evidence outlined illustrates the very significant challenges that have faced front-line homelessness and housing advice services in Pembrokeshire over recent years including dealing with increasing levels of homelessness and unprecedented demand for temporary accommodation. Alongside this, the demand for social housing has seen significant growth in the Choice-Based Lettings housing register, accompanied by a reduction in the number of lettings becoming available. Pembrokeshire has responded proactively to the conflict in Ukraine, with 400 people dispersed to host families and other accommodation with support from a dedicated support team. At the same time efforts are underway by to locate suitable accommodation to house an expected allocation of asylum seekers by Welsh Government by December 2023.

Whilst the scale of the challenge was amplified significantly by the impacts of Covid-19 the evidence indicates that pressures on these services were already increasing prior to the pandemic. Changes in the housing market linked to the factors described in this strategy have contributed to a housing market that has become increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible for a significant proportion of Pembrokeshire’s population. The added pressures of conflict in Ukraine, changes to the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and a cost of living crisis are amongst a number of factors that have amplified the already significant impacts of Covid-19. Furthermore, the rise in interest rates within the last 12 months have directly increased housing costs for many households on the margins of sustaining their accommodation.

Whilst increasing the supply of affordable housing is a key priority in this housing strategy, the likely timescales for achieving a marked rebalancing of the housing market do not have the prospect providing rapid relief to the pressures on homelessness and housing advice services nor the costs associated with meeting the council’s statutory obligations around temporary accommodation provision. The significant costs incurred in providing temporary accommodation are not sustainable in the long term and whilst they are supported by significant grants from Welsh Government there is no guarantee how long these will continue.  Similarly, the extent or timing of any economic upturn or reduction in interest rates represent further uncertainties in the shorter term that imply continuing pressures on households at risk of homelessness. Addressing the significant challenge of high levels of homelessness is therefore a key priority for the council.

Furthermore, in line with the WG ambitions to End Homelessness, a White Paper has been launched in October 2023.

Our approach

Our approach will be in line with Welsh Government’s strategic approach to ending homelessness.

Over recent years Welsh Government has published a number of key policy statements that have described the ambition to prevent and address homelessness in Wales and set out the direction they wish to see local authority homelessness services taking in meeting that ambition. The Strategy for Preventing and Ending Homelessness, published in October 2019 pre-dated the Covid-19 pandemic but its key messages and policy principles were picked up and further developed within The Ending Homelessness in Wales - High Level Action Plan 2021-26 taking into account the learning from the pandemic and the recommendations of the expert Homelessness Task and Finish Group.

The High Level Action Plan highlights the Programme for Government commitment to two key actions which will be critical to ending homelessness. Firstly, through a commitment to fundamentally reform homelessness services to focus on prevention and rapid rehousing and building 20,000 new low carbon social homes for rent. Pembrokeshire’s Housing Strategy includes a commitment to an ambitious programme of affordable housing development alongside which we will also transform our homelessness services towards prevention and the principles of Rapid Rehousing.

Rapid re-housing is a housing-led approach to homelessness that recognises the negative impact of homelessness on families and individuals and in particular seeks to address the marginalising and destabilising effects, when homeless, of prolonged stays in emergency and/or temporary accommodation arrangements.

Welsh Government’s High Level Action Plan sets out fundamental changes to the systems and processes that prevent homelessness, with a focus on early preventative actions across public services and confirming the transformational shift expected of local authorities towards Rapid Rehousing. It proposes a radical shift so most cases of homelessness are prevented with the expectation that if anyone does experience homelessness they will be provided with quick respite, making that experience brief, with support allowing people to access suitable, long-term and stable homes so that homelessness is no longer repeated. The strategy is clear that preventing homelessness a cross-sector priority relevant to health, social services, education, criminal justice, community services and our wider economy and sets out an expectation that public services will work together in delivering homelessness prevention. The strategy repeats a number of principles from the 2019 strategy that underpin Welsh Government’s approach to homelessness prevention which are expected to guide the work of all services involved in the delivery of homelessness services:

• The earliest preventions are most effective and most cost effective and should always be the interventions of first choice.
• Tackling and preventing homelessness is a public services matter – rather than only a ‘housing matter’.
• All services should place the individual at the centre and work together in a trauma informed way.
• The duties in Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 should be the last line of defence – not the first - and all services should work to the spirit not simply the letter of the law.
• Policy, service delivery and practice should be informed and shaped in a co-productive manner and by those with lived experience.

In setting out the roadmap towards achieving the transformational shift in approach towards rapid re-housing the high level Action Plan sets out a series of actions that will need to be undertaken by all the agencies connected with homelessness, including Welsh Government. Some of the actions are specific to Welsh Government but many are specific to local authorities and their partners. Those actions, together with our own priorities for action, such as those set out in Pembrokeshire’s Rapid Re-housing Plan 2022-2027 and the Housing Support Programme (HSP) Strategy 2022-2026 will form the basis of our approach towards achieving the Council’s ambition that ‘homelessness is prevented, brief, rare and unrepeated’, a priority that reflects the commitment set out in the Programme for the Administration and Welsh Government’s High Level Action Plan 2021-26. Delivery of the transformation set out in our Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan will take significant effort and resources, much of which has yet to be scoped in detail and the plan is clear that whilst the span of the plan may allow the foundations for Rapid Rehousing, full implementation will be a longer term project. 

Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 places a statutory duty on each local authority in Wales to carry out a homelessness review and formulate a homelessness strategy. A homelessness strategy, under section 50 of the Act, is a strategy for achieving the following objectives in the local housing authority’s area:

• The prevention of homelessness
• That suitable accommodation is and will be available for people who are or may become homeless
• That satisfactory support is available for people who are or may become homeless.

Key achievements 

• We have developed a Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan 2022-2027 to set out our plans to deliver a housing-led approach to tackling homelessness
• We are nearing completion of the review of the Choice-Homes Allocation Policy to ensure our policies for accessing social housing support are fair and appropriate in the context of local housing needs.

Our priority actions

• P2.1     Deliver the priorities set out in Pembrokeshire County Council’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan 2022-2027
• P2.2     Ensure Pembrokeshire continues to maximise access to Welsh Government’s emergency and transitional funding to support the move towards Rapid Rehousing
• P2.3     Develop a workforce training plan for Homelessness and Housing Advice staffing and enable access to training developed by Welsh Government in support of the transition towards Rapid Rehousing
• P2.4     Implement the Strategic Priorities set out within the Housing Support Programme HSP Strategy 2022-26 which strengthen the capacity and capability of housing-related support services to deliver outcomes in support of rapid rehousing
• P2.5     Develop improved systems for multi-agency co-operation particularly on the identification of young people at risk of homelessness
• P2.6     Develop an approach to monitoring and evaluating the transformation of towards Rapid Rehousing and for making recommendations for improvement.

The scale of the challenge in transforming homelessness services from the current position cannot be overstated bearing in mind the wide ranging external influences that impact on the national and local economy, the scale of temporary accommodation in use presently together with the capacity constraints of the council and its partners.

Challenges to delivery

• Ongoing cost of living crisis and high interest rates create risks around the ability of households to cover housing costs increasing the risk of homelessness
• Timescales for delivering large scale development of new affordable housing and low turnover rates in social housing create difficulties for moving households into settled accommodation.
• Ongoing higher house prices continuing to prevent new households requiring re-housing to enter the housing market thereby increasing risks around homelessness
• Backlog of housing demand in the housing register will take time to clear and for some households in need create little or no chance of housing.
• The limited capacity in the private rented sector currently to support efforts at rehousing households in temporary accommodation due to landlords leaving the private rented sector
• Capacity within the Housing Advice teams to manage demand whilst delivering significant transformational change
• Capacity of Social Housing Grant to cover the support costs associated with more assertive and intensive support for homelessness prevention alongside the need for generalised low level housing support.
• Ongoing impact of Covid-19 which significantly increased the scale of challenge we have to face in terms of repaid rehousing and has increased the vulnerability of many residents who spent a prolonged period in lockdown.

Detailing the actions