Housing, homelessness and rough sleeping strategy

Our 5 Year Homelessness review was complete between February and June 2018.

It told us:

• Levels of homelessness in Welwyn Hatfield, bucked both the national and regional trend remaining pretty static, since our last review, however, the impact of the new Homelessness Reduction Act 2018 which requires us to help more people for longer, saw homeless officers caseload go up four-fold.
• The availability of social / council housing has slowed, resulting in people needing temporary accommodation for longer which has created pressures accommodating new applicants coming in. For the first time, in 2018, we were reliant on nightly paid hotels to meet demand.
• Cuts to support provision, has seen more people with complex needs, requiring our assistance who would previously have been provided with a more supported offer.
• Rough sleeping had steadily grown and can in part be attributed to the reduction in support services for vulnerable people.
• Despite these issues we have seen significant successes in homelessness prevention, through casework, designated housing pathways and an innovative partnerships approach e.g. 'Housing First', outreach work and our Homeless Prevention Hub.