Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director (Housing and Communities) which provides an update on housing-related activities.

Members considered the report of the Corporate Director (Housing and Communities) which gave an update on the services provided by the Housing and Communities teams and work that continued to be undertaken by Officers. Over the past quarter the team had been engaged in day to day service delivery and had also contributed to the council-wide Covid-19 response, as previously reported to full council.

The following points were raised and discussed.

·         Members commented on how the report was testament to how hard the Housing and Communities teams had been working under difficult circumstances and Members wanted to express their gratitude.

·         Members asked for an update on the emergency accommodation that had been required for eight rough sleepers following the closure of The Hive at the Jim MacDonald Centre and Jimmy Macs. The team had taken swift action early on in the crisis and worked with Resolve and Mears to find them emergency accommodation. The team had looked at the needs of the eight residents and had in progress solutions for all eight. The Government were saying that communal night shelters could not open at present but it was hoped that The Hive could re-open early August. In the meantime the team were in communication with Resolve about setting up a slightly different accommodation option.  Resolve would use their current team to provide support so the Council would have an ongoing offer for any rough sleepers going forward. Longer term the project may be used as a platform as it had been very successful and was getting some interest externally. Medium term, the Council was exploring different solutions and would share these with Members once the proposals had been finalised.

·         Members wanted it noted that the Risk and Resilience Team and Environmental Health had provided support to the Housing team in terms of carrying out risk assessments.

·         There had been a significant rise in anti-social behaviour (ASB) and neighbour related issues. Members asked how the teams had found it working in these difficult circumstances. Officers said that caseloads had increased but staff had adapted incredibly well and had been well supported by their Team Leader. Officers are ensuring that staff were debriefed regularly and keeping in touch with staff as many staff members were working from home.

·         Members asked how teams were supporting residents. Officers explained that they had been looking at ways of engaging with them and had been doing a lot of social media posts alongside the Community Safety Partnership and the Police, urging people to be sensible and tolerant and communicating to them that the Council will enforce where necessary. The Council had undertaken online Police surgeries where people could report hotspot areas and the ASB team were contactable by phone and by email. Hopefully, residents had not seen much of a change in terms of services and the Council were still obtaining high percentages in terms of satisfaction in the way that cases were being dealt with despite the increase in cases.

·         Members enquired about whether the Shop Mobility Service had been reinstated. Officers explained that the Council was constantly reviewing how it could open in the Howard Centre and had carried out risk assessments. Based on current Government guidelines, it was not considered safe to open at the moment but guidelines were changing rapidly. Demand at present was relatively low.

·         Housing Needs Team figures update – Since 27 March 2020, the team has had 400 approaches for advice and assistance. Out of those, there were 246 households that were owed prevention or relief duty and 118 were provided with accommodation. 59 had fallen into the grouping of the Everyone In initiative. Out of the 246 cases in March, 62 had already been assisted with settled accommodation and there are 44 cases in the current group of Everyone In which included the 8 housed with the Resolve project. The current caseload for each Housing Options Officer was in excess 60.

·         Members enquired about the cost to the Council for ensuring that there was no homelessness during the lockdown period. Officers explained that the Government had provided a small amount of funding which had not met the full cost. The Council had received Housing Benefit in payment wherever possible and for anybody who was placed in hotel accommodation. There were also arrangements in place where any costs associated with support of the individuals in temporary accommodation were being claimed back through Herts County Council who were releasing some of the funding they had received from Government. The Council was also looking at the Department of Work and Pensions Flexible Support Grant and other funding streams from the Government when the prospectus was released. The initial outlay cost the Council hundreds of thousands of pounds but the Council was recovering as much of that as possible.

·         Members asked how many properties on the Now Housing Chequersfield site would be for rent and how many allocated to housing. Officers explained that there was going to be 30 new homes being built and 10 would be allocated to Now Housing and 20 would be social rent through the Social Revenue Account.

·         Members enquired about engaging residents on social media and raising the profile of services and whether it would be possible to get a breakdown of the reach of those posts and whether the public had actually engaged with them. Officers said that they would make enquiries.

RESOLVED:

That the performance report be noted.