This page looks at different ways in which the problem of homelessness can be prevented.
The 2002 Homelessness Act
A major step towards preventing homelessness was taken with the introduction in England and Wales of the 2002 Homelessness Act. This put new duties on local authorities to tackle homelessness at the strategic level and work as much as possible to prevent people becoming homeless, rather than managing the emergency situation once people have lost their homes.
The first step taken by councils under the Act was to review the level of homelessness in the area so that they had an understanding of the causes and extent of the existing problem. Other organisations, such as local homelessness charities, housing advice centres and other relevant council departments, also had an input into the review. The councils used the information on the problem to compile a homelessness strategy to tackle the existing and future problem for the area. The homelessness strategy provides a framework for policy dealing with the homelessness problem and for preventing future homelessness.
Government analysis of the homelessness strategies produced by the 354 local authorities in England and 22 local authorities in Wales shows that all strategies stressed the benefits of preventing homelessness – councils acknowledge that it is far better to invest in preventative work than to have to provide emergency housing at short notice when people are literally roofless. They can also see that prevention saves money – it is far more cost effective to pay a small amount to keep someone in their home than to pay out for temporary accommodation costs.
In the best councils, adoption of the homelessness strategies has led to a culture change in the organisation and a shifting of resources from responding to preventing the problem of homelessness. In all councils the process of compiling the strategy meant that for the first time homelessness and homelessness prevention has been dealt with at the strategic level.
Sustainable communities: settled homes, changing lives
The importance of prevention was emphasised by the government in its five year housing strategy Sustainable communities: settled homes, changing lives released in March 2005. This sets out the government’s priorities in tackling homelessness in England for the period to 2010.
National Homelessness Strategy for Wales 2006 - 2008
The Welsh national homelessness strategy published in December 2005 stresses the importance of preventing homelessness. It directs local authorities and homelessness services to direct their attention to preventing homelessness first and only to follow the procedure for re-housing homeless people the preventative efforts have failed.
What do we mean by preventing homelessness?
‘Preventing homelessness means providing people with the ways and means to address their housing and other needs in order to avoid homelessness. Prevention activities include those which enable a household to remain in their current home, where appropriate, or to enable a planned and timely move and help sustain independent living.’
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister – Sustainable Communities: settled homes; changing lives
What's the best way to prevent homelessness?
Homelessness can be prevented by a variety of different interventions to tackle the problem before it reaches crisis point. For homelessness prevention to work, early intervention is vital. Research into homelessness shows that housing problems do not suddenly appear but develop over time.
There is often a period of up to four or five months between the first indication of a housing problem and the eviction notice being served. Traditionally a council housing department would only intervene in a situation when it was reaching crisis point – ie when the family had received an eviction notice and were given 28 days notice to vacate the property.
As a result of the focus on prevention, councils should be geared up to intervene in a housing problem soon after it develops. Often councils will develop links with landlords and other bodies and work with them to identify problems as they develop and so prevent the problem spiralling out of control. Understanding the landlords, and the tenants’ circumstances, needs and desires can go a long way towards preventing homelessness.
Housing advice and information
Housing advice, as provided by the Housing Justice CHAS network of housing advice centres, empowers people by providing them with objective information and advice on their housing options and services available to them. In addition, centres can give advice on other problems, such as debt and benefit issues which often are the cause of housing problems. Housing advice centres can also contact landlords and other organisations on the tenant’s behalf and try to resolve the problem. Housing advice centres break down the (often arbitrary) distinctions that are made between statutory, non-statutory, intentional and unintentional homelessness.
Jim’s story
Jim was released from prison after serving 15 months of his sentence. He was released on a tag to live with his parents in Devon. When the tag was removed Jim decided to leave his parent’s rural home in search of work. He went to a town some distance away where he had friends. Jim applied to the Council there but they would not accept a duty to house him because they said he was not vulnerable under the terms of the 2002 Homelessness Act. Failing to find a home or a job, Jim ended up sleeping in a garage before he found his way to one of Housing Justice’s Alliance of Housing Advice Centres. Although Jim was determined to turn over a new leaf, worry and depression about his situation led him to turn to drink. Advice centre staff felt there was a real risk that he would be tempted back into crime. A worker at the centre persuaded the YMCA to provide Jim with a bed space for two months to help him get back on his feet. Now Jim is receiving the help he needs to find a job and a permanent home.
Rent deposit schemes
To move in to private sector housing individuals usually require a deposit of a least one month’s rent as well as a month’s rent in advance. This is unaffordable to most people without large savings – more than £1,000 might be required depending on the area. Those who are homeless or are threatened with homelessness are unlikely to have savings to fall back upon to pay for this which means they are unable to move into private rented accommodation. Rent deposit schemes pay the deposit to the landlord enabling homeless people or those threatened with homelessness to take out a private sector tenancy.
Often rent deposit schemes will be available to everyone – including people who do not fall into one of the priority need categories. The involvement of an external body should also help to overcome any fears the landlord might have in letting their property to a homeless person. Housing Justice CHAS housing advice centres pioneered the use of rent deposit schemes – housing advice centres such as Kingston, Kirklees and Oswestry have for a number of years helped people move into long term private sector property
Tenancy support
Tenancy support is broad term used to describe services that exist to help people into housing and once in ensure that they do not lose it. These services range from providing furniture and other household essentials when someone moves into a new house, advice on utilities, budgeting and navigating local services, to help with finding treatment for drug or alcohol problems. Specialist tenancy support services are available for people with mental health problems, ex-offenders and long-term homeless people. Anti-social behaviour by tenants can be tackled in this way too – with the aim of stopping it or moving tenants before the landlord starts court proceedings. If tenants find they get into difficulties, tenancy support services can intervene with the landlord or other organisation to work out a way to resolve the problem before it gets to the desperate stage when eviction is threatened.
Landlords’ services
As well as looking after tenants local authority housing departments can also run landlord support services to provide information for existing and prospective private landlords on what they should expect from tenants and what they are required to do to comply with landlord and tenant law. These aim to prevent unnecessary court proceedings on both sides and ensure that landlords and tenants are able to have a business-like relationship.
One council in the South of England with a large private rented sector has a team of housing department staff whose sole duty is ensuring that landlords are happy with arrangements – recently, tenants came to the Council with an eviction notice after the landlord told them he was selling the house. On investigation by the landlords’ team the true story emerged – the landlord actually wanted to increase his rents and thought that the only way he could do it was by evicting the tenants and taking on new ones paying higher rents. The landlords’ team was able to give him details of the procedure to increase rents in compliance with the law, and so the tenants agreed to pay a higher rent enabling them to remain in their family home.
Prevention funds
Often linked to tenancy support services, some local authorities have set aside small homelessness prevention funds which are available to housing officers to help families who are facing homelessness as a result of a (relatively) small financial problem such as rental arrears. These funds allow local authority Housing Officers to think creatively around a problem and apply unconventional solutions to prevent homelessness.
One London borough allocates a notional £200 from its prevention fund to Housing Officers for every family they are helping. This money can be freely spent by the Housing Officer; for example, in one case it was used to clear a small rent arrear that had built up and which was preventing a family accessing a private or council tenancy. In another case the money was used to arrange for gardening work to be done for an older person who was threatened with eviction because he was unable to maintain the garden. In another case the money was used to pay for travel tickets so that a family could move to a new area where they had relatives and where there was suitable private sector accommodation. The thinking behind the funding is that spending a few hundred pounds now to prevent a problem or provide a solution is better than spending £400+ a week for the family in temporary accommodation.
Mediation
Mediation services attempt to resolve problems resulting from relationship breakdowns either between parents and young people or between adults sharing housing. Usually mediators are called in when the relationship has broken down and one of the people has been made homeless – often, young people might be thrown out of their parents’ home following an argument – or they are threatened with homelessness.
Mediators act as impartial facilitators for meetings between the affected parties so that differences can be discussed and hopefully resolved, and the affected people either resume living together harmoniously or, if they decide that the relationship has broken down irretrievably, they can seek alternative accommodation. If this occurs, hopefully the mediation service will have enabled them to consider their options and attempted to resolve some of the issues in the breakup of the relationship. Mediation services are usually provided by independent charities with funding from local authority housing departments.
Domestic violence/abuse
One situation where mediation is not appropriate is domestic violence or an abusive situation. Usually in these circumstances the relationship has broken down to such an extent that mediation is not possible or desirable.
Traditionally council housing departments would, as a matter of priority, re-house victims of domestic violence outside the area. This has an impact on the whole family, as children will be forced to change schools and face other disruption which impacts on their whole lives. When questioned, researchers found that 60% of women re-housed as a result of domestic violence stated that they would prefer to remain in their own homes. As a result, ‘sanctuary’ schemes have been developed across the country which bring together the Police, the housing department and other relevant authorities to develop solutions which will allow the family to continue living in their home. The council can arrange to provide increased security measures on the home such as strengthening doors and locks, installing alarms and a secure means of contacting the Police. In addition, the Police can start legal proceedings against the violent partner to prevent them coming near the house. The family is therefore able to stay in the home and not have their lives disrupted by the violent partner.
Longer term solutions to prevent homelessness – build more homes
In the long-term to prevent homelessness we need to be building more homes for sale and for rent so that people are able to choose decent housing of an appropriate size for themselves and their families. This will avoid many of the issues that give rise to stress that can lead to relationship breakdown and homelessness.
In 2006 house building is at an historic low. In order to begin to address the mismatch between housing demand and supply a government economist, Kate Barker, in 2004 estimated that we need to build an extra 140,000 new homes a year for the next 20 years. Of these 140,000 it was recommended that at least 23,000 should be affordable social housing to begin to replace the 1.5 million homes sold to tenants under the right to buy policy since 1979. Once sold, these homes were not replaced.
Plans are currently underway to build more housing each year, including 30,000 extra homes in the South East. This is a welcome attempt to begin to address the severe shortage of housing in South East England. Inevitably, some housing will have to be built on greenfield sites, but most people would agree that the trade-off between the loss of a small amount of countryside and ensuring that people are adequately housed is worth it.
In December 2005 the government announced its response to the conclusions of Kate Barker's review of housing supply. They took on board many of her arguments and pledged to increase housing supply by 50,000 new homes year. It also pledged to increase the number of new social housing homes making it a priority for the 2007 spending review.
We need to ensure that the new housing developments are appropriate for the local need. So, for example, in areas with lots of families in housing need, we should ensure that new developments are of homes suitable for families of varying sizes rather than simply one and two bedroom flats. In an area with older people in housing need the reverse is true as they will probably prefer smaller homes. In addition we need to ensure that the infrastructure such as transport, community facilities, schools is in place and suitable for the area. Only when we have all this in place will we be able to build truly sustainable communities.
Action points –what can you do?
- Read your council’s local homelessness strategy – this will give you an idea of the local housing and homelessness issues and needs and what the council is doing to prevent homelessness.
- Find out about housing advice and tenancy support services available in your area.
- Gather a list of local resources for homeless and badly housed people – include advice services, support services and also children’s and young people’s resources, like toy libraries, youth clubs and play schemes. Share this with other churches and organisations like the UCM, Mothers’ Union, and SVP. Remember to keep the list up to date!
- Find out if there are plans for any new housing in your area – is it appropriate? Will adequate community facilities and infrastructure be provided? Ask your local councillors what they are doing to tackle the housing shortage.
- Can you use your church premises and your church community to help families in housing need? Perhaps offering some play space and a meal each week (use lots of volunteers). It can be a lifeline to parents and children living in cramped conditions.
- Can you provide emergency accommodation with local families and religious houses? Through a network of 43 schemes across the country, Nightstop provides safe emergency accommo-dation for homeless young people aged 16–25 exclusively in the homes of approved volunteers until appropriate permanent housing is secured. Contact them to find your nearest scheme or to learn how to start a scheme.
Nightstop UK, National Office, 45A Otley Road, Shipley, BD18 3PY. T: 01274 5330004 E: info@nightstop-uk.org W: www.nightstop-uk.org