Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023 – 2028

4.1: Achievements

The Authority has continued to work with its partners within the Borough and the wider region to deliver new initiatives, create specialist roles, promote continuous engagement, and strengthen working relationships and partnerships. This includes:  

Specialist roles

• A Homelessness Support Officer to work with current and former rough sleepers, and those at risk of rough sleeping.
• A Single Person Support Officer to provide support to individuals to resolve their housing crisis.
• A Mental Health Officer to provide guidance to both officers and clients.
• A Domestic Abuse Housing Outreach Officer to work with both officers and families.
• A Private Rented Officer, whose offer has been expanded to support customers to access and sustain accommodation.

Services

• A Homeless Response Service, including outreach to locate and engage with rough sleepers and deliver brief interventions.
• Provision of a sit-up service in a local resource hall for rough sleepers during periods of severe weather.
• A multi-service drop in/hub facility for current and former rough sleepers, those at risk of rough sleeping or living in insecure accommodation.
• Delivery of homelessness and housing educational sessions by a partner into schools and colleges.
• Introduction of an intensive support package for rough sleepers, linked with an accommodation offer.

Accommodation

• Proactive engagement with bed and breakfast and hotel establishments to increase the number of businesses who will accept homeless households.
• Introduction of Somewhere Safe to Stay bedspaces to improve the housing pathway with an immediate offer off the streets or to avoid rough sleeping.
• Funding through the Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP) to increase the number of dispersed properties available to homeless households.
• Enhanced the accommodation pathway offer with the introduction of five properties through the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme (RSAP).
• Supported a partner’s funding application to purchase properties in North Tyneside to assist with move-on from supported housing.
• Recommissioned supported housing provision for 16-24 year-olds and over-25s.

And…

• Accessed funding to assist people off the streets and into temporary accommodation, travel costs to reconnect to their home area if safe to do so, and basic provisions.
• Extended our membership with the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance, accessing tools and resources to support the delivery of services.
• Received recognition from Government advisors for our web pages on homelessness and the information provided to assist those in need of housing advice, which have been cited as best practice.
• Transferred the homelessness out of hours service to an in-house contact centre.
• The introduction of a 0800 Freephone number for those with limited finances and at risk of homelessness to contact the local authority on.

4.2: Current picture

4.2.1: Housing Options (homelessness)

The Housing Options Team (homelessness) is the first point of contact for any resident in need of free, independent advice regarding their current housing situation. A triage system identifies and prioritises those who require an appointment and have any queries that can be resolved through the provision of advice. Roofless presentations are dealt with the same day. Located within the team are several specialist posts that support the delivery of a seamless and integrated service.

4.2.2: Access to homeless services

We collect and analyse data across our homeless service. Some of the outcomes of our work are reflected in the data and it also helps inform our priorities.

4.2.3: Homeless presentations

We offer housing advice to our customers who are at risk of homelessness, threatened with homelessness, or believe they currently are homeless, all of which are represented as a homeless presentation. The response to a homeless presentation is tailored to individual circumstances and follows relevant legislation and code of guidance. The majority of cases are resolved with housing advice, with a fewer number of cases progressing to a full homeless application. The main reason for presentations were:

• 2019/20 – End of assured shorthold tenancy
• 2020/21 – Asked to leave by family
• 2021/22 – Asked to leave by family
• 2022/23 – End of assured shorthold tenancy

Homeless Presentations

4.2.4: Prevention

We encourage early presentations to the service, as this helps support the prevention of homelessness. Prevention is the first option we explore with our customers.

We use a range of measures such mediation with family members, financial support or negotiation with private landlords to help sustain current accommodation.

4.2.5: Temporary accommodation

A specialist temporary emergency accommodation team is responsible for arranging emergency and temporary accommodation and providing support for the duration of the placement.

Households are placed in temporary accommodation if there is a duty to do so, i.e. they are believed to be eligible, homeless and likely to be in priority need while their application is dealt with, or it has not been possible to prevent or relieve their homelessness and they have been accepted as homeless and in priority need.

Temporary accommodation is provided until the Council’s statutory duty comes to an end, normally through a household moving into a permanent home. Temporary accommodation is provided through our existing social housing stock, with furnished homes dispersed throughout the Borough. Only in exceptional circumstances is bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation used for homeless applicants. If there is no provision available in North Tyneside, or it is not safe to remain in the area, then a placement is secured out of area. The household is moved back to North Tyneside as soon as it is possible to do so, where it is appropriate.

The Covid-19 pandemic and Government initiative of ‘Everyone In’, which ensured no one was left on the streets or without a roof over their head during periods of national and local lockdowns, resulted in an increase in the number of households placed in temporary accommodation. Numbers have since fallen, but remain higher than prior to 2020.

4.2.6 Rough sleeping:

North Tyneside Council provides an immediate response to reports of rough sleepers, working in partnership with commissioned services.

The service offers a personalised approach to current and former rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping. This has ensured there is a specialist service available to some of our most vulnerable residents when they need it most. This has resulted in no rough sleepers currently reported in North Tyneside.

A bi-monthly rough sleeping count, or estimate, takes place to monitor levels of rough sleeping and identify hotspots. This work is supported by the Government requirement to submit an annual figure to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) indicating the number of people sleeping rough on an agreed typical night. This is carried out between 1 October and 30 November.

4.2.7: Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP)

There are no legal requirements placed on local authorities to provide shelter to rough sleepers during periods of severe weather. This includes extreme cold, high winds, heavy rain, and heat. However, providing shelter to rough sleepers in these conditions feels the right thing to do and our Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) sets out the arrangements that we implement to ensure that rough sleepers, or those at risk of rough sleeping, can access a safe shelter when the protocol is activated.