Council committee to consider homeless report

Feb 2 2010 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

EFFORTS by Perth and Kinross Council to reduce homelessness are having some success.

But, a councillor warns, only more investment from central government can lead to the national goal of consigning homelessness to history.

A report on how the council is tackling homelessness will be considered by its housing and health committee tomorrow.

The main priorities in the homelessness strategy include:

lMinimising the number of people presenting themselves as homelessness to the council, and cases of repeat homelessness;

lImproving both access to a range of tenures and the range of temporary accommodation options;

lIncreasing the proportion of homeless households who access settled accommodation;

lReducing the average time the homeless spend in temporary accommodation;

lIncreasing the proportion of homeless households assessed as in “priority need” to help meet the national 2012 government target; and

lHelping to address the shortfall of affordable housing by enabling the development of affordable accommodation.

Housing and health convener Peter Barrett said yesterday: “The new homelessness strategy will build on the excellent work we are already doing.

“The hard work of our staff has transformed the delivery of our homelessness services in recent years and put us on the road to successful achievement of Scottish Government's 2012 targets for the first time, which is a major achievement.

“Reducing homelessness in Perth and Kinross has presented us with a major challenge, and it has been made a very high priority for this council. In response to the difficult situation we faced we have had to come up with a range of innovative initiatives that expanded our capacity to meet the needs of people who present to us as homeless.

“I’m delighted that this work has paid off. We now find ourselves in the position where we can extend priority need to people aged 16-24 and over 55 – age groups which include some very vulnerable individuals.”

Initiatives introduced by the council to tackle homelessness include engaging with the private sector to find and support affordable housing opportunities, and a rent bond guarantee scheme, launched in September 2009, to give people access to private sector tenancies without need for a cash deposit.

And about to be launched – the first of its kind in Scotland – is a council ‘social’ lettings agency which, operating on a not-for-profit basis, will offer private sector landlords a professional lettings, property and tenancy management service tailored to meet their needs.

It is expected this initiative will bring many private sector properties into the social housing arena.

Councillor Barrett concluded: "People become homeless for a wide variety of reasons, and it’s vital we continue our work so we are in a position to help as many of them as we can.

“However, looking at the big picture, without specific targeted investment from the Scottish Government to dramatically increase the supply of affordable homes in Perth and Kinross, the national goal to eradicate homelessness cannot be achieved.”