Agenda item - Question to the Leader from Councillor Lucy Musk

Agenda item

Question to the Leader from Councillor Lucy Musk

Minutes:

“When I reported a rough sleeper in WGC to the emergency out of hours contact number, I was told that no one could come out to see the person in question as the Council doesn’t routinely go out to find rough sleepers and the homeless person should call themselves.  Thankfully after some persistence the young man was found a place to stay.  Homelessness like illness does not adhere to the 9 to 5, so what are we doing to provide better access to help, specifically out of hours?”

 

Answer

 

“Thank you for your question and I am glad that you were able to help someone.

 

The council’s housing needs service operates an ‘Out of Hours’ service 365 days per year, 24/7.  The team share this responsibility, which is in addition to their contracted working hours, on a rota basis, covering the service and providing advice and assistance.  Where someone is homeless and it is established that the council may have a duty to house them, accommodation is provided.   This will be based on contact either directly with the person who is homeless or with a statutory organisation such as the police or social services.

 

The council does provide a specialist outreach service (Resolve) to help rough sleepers.  Staff from Resolve will attend site where someone is reported to be rough sleeping.  If the report is made outside office hours, Resolve will be contacted and will attend the next working day (they do operate every other Saturday between 9AM and 3PM). 

 

Resolve seek to engage with the person sleeping rough and where possible, the aim is to find them suitable accommodation as soon as possible.   However there are a number of people who will not engage, either initially (until trust has been established) or in the longer term.    Resolve and, where appropriate, the housing options team will continue to visit the person to find a resolution.

 

If a report of someone sleeping rough is made to our ‘Out of Hours’ service, the details will be passed to the housing options officer on duty and Resolve will be sent the information in order that they can visit on their next working day; usually, unless we can speak to the individual directly we may only be able to provide general advice;  if we speak direct to the individual, then we can fully assess their circumstances and based on this, accommodation may be provided;  where there is concern for the individual’s wellbeing, advice will be given that the police are contacted, in order that a welfare check can be carried out.

 

As a general point, the council does not have a duty to house all people who are homeless and whilst we will provide as much help and advice as possible, to ensure someone is either prevented from becoming homeless or is directed to suitable accommodation where they are homeless, we don’t directly house everyone who comes to us for assistance.

 

The Council, as well as funding the outreach service and a Housing First project, has recently agreed to provide funding which will support the setting up of a Night Shelter in Hatfield.    The council has committed £270,000 to this project, which will provide a safe place for up to 15 people.  In addition to this we have made an application to central government for funding to further support this initiative, including funding for specialist ‘navigators’ who will help support people who are or have been rough sleeping to find long term housing solutions.

 

The details for the call out service are available on the Council’s website and are known to relevant services such as the police and social care; we are also part of a well-publicised national scheme called Streetlink. Any reports made to Streetlink, either through the website or helpline are sent directly to the Housing Options team.”

 

Councillor Musk in a supplementary question said that if someone was found on a Friday night, they might have to wait until Monday or Tuesday and was this leaving a lot to Resolve which is a charity?

 

The Leader said that there is a partial out of hours service for vulnerable people.