PAPER D
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ADULT AND COMMUNITY SERVICES SELECT
COMMITTEE – 28 APRIL 2005 PROVISION OF HOUSING FRONT DESK AND
HOMELESS PREVENTION SERVICE REPORT OF THE PROTFOLIO HOLDER FOR ADULT AND COMMUNITY SERVICES |
BACKGROUND
The Isle of Wight Council currently has a contract with the Law Centre to provide two categories of service for the housing department:
§ a general enquiries service and homeless prevention service
§ an independent specialist housing advice service
In order to clarify further, these services are completely separate and funded by different revenue streams. The former is funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (OPDM) and the latter by Isle of Wight Council (IWC). While this report details both of these elements, this report only proposes that the former element is considered for reintegration into the Council’s directly provided services.
The ODPM grant is given to IWC to help achieve reductions in homeless acceptances against the three main causes of homelessness. These causes are:
§ the ending of assured shorthold tenancies
§ relationship breakdowns
§ family exclusions – normally younger persons who are asked to leave the family home
It is a condition of the grant that the Council achieves reductions against each of these categories compared with 2004/5, hence the need to achieve the best use of resources by provision of a fully integrated service within IWC.
INITIAL ENQUIRY (KNOWN AS
“FRONT DESK”) AND PREVENTION SERVICE
In order to provide Members with a commensurate level of detail, it may be useful to outline the areas of responsibility under the contract for the front desk service. This service includes the following areas of work:
§ dealing with initial housing enquiries
§ contacting landlords to enquire why tenancies are being terminated and seeking to prevent this if possible
§ checking tenancy agreements and notices seeking possession
§ giving private rented scheme accommodation information to those looking for private accommodation
§ advising clients excluded from home that the Council seeks 28 days notice to leave and will refer cases for mediation
§ contacting parents to try and place young people back home
§ advising in respect of the single room rent and where possible calculate housing benefit level
§ advising in respect of hostels and mother and baby units
§ advising how to obtain injunctions or how to seek to gain access into the family home
§ advising that enquiries are made in domestic violence cases and approaching refuges in respect of vacancies
INTENDED DEVELOPMENT OF
SERVICE
While customers should contact the Law Centre first, we have found that a significant number of initial enquiries are still received by the Council’s housing section. As such, the housing section staff are well skilled in dealing with such enquiries. In terms of providing the most efficient homeless prevention service, the Council can integrate all homelessness team staff, which will allow more effective liaison and early referral of cases.
Significant successes have already been achieved by housing section staff since the first Homeless Prevention Officer was employed in 2003. As an example, during the last year the rent deposit scheme has secured accommodation for 83 households. In respect of parental exclusions and relationship breakdowns, housing staff now undertake home visiting as an immediate preventative measure. Home visiting in such cases is now widely recognised as the most appropriate means for the majority of cases to best establish circumstances, review options and bring in mediation or other specialist services. A package of other initiatives are used including furniture removals and store, advice leaflets, information packs, private landlords liaison and benefit / tenancy assistance, rent level tracking. Finally, reception and interview facilities have been recently significantly enhanced to offer a welcoming environment for customers to encourage visits to the office.
To summarise this, Council staff have been very pro-active in improving existing services and have introduced new (enhanced) facilities for customers. The proposed re-integration is the next stage in delivering those improvements.
In respect of reducing the main types of homelessness, Council prevention staff have played a critical part in the successful outcomes achieved in 2004/05. A full integration of services within the department will allow complete management of the prevention process. As such, the potential for homelessness prevention will be maximised.
CONTINUED PROVISION OF
SPECIALIST ADVICE BY THE LAW CENTRE
The proposed integration of the front desk and prevention service is intended to allow the better handling of the more routine homelessness work by Council staff. However, the expertise of the Law Centre is well regarded and the Council intends to continue using this (separate) service for the foreseeable future. As such, specialist debt advice, injunctive work, representation at court etc is not intended to be re-integrated within the IWC. For members information, the specialist advice services which are provided by the Law Centre include the following areas of work:
§
Dealing with
mortgage or rent arrears
§
Harrassment
and illegal eviction
§
Landlord and
tenant disputes
§
Advice on
housing options
§
Housing
management and repair issues
§
Help with
completing Housing Benefit claims and other forms
§
Representation
at homelessness appeals and rent review tribunals
§
Representation
at the County Court for Repossession hearings
1. That the general enquiries (front desk) and homelessness prevention services are taken back in-house to the Council in order to provide a more effective service to end users through the benefits of integration.
2. That benefits of utilising the expertise of the Law Centre are recognised by a continuation of funding, enabling it to continue to provide such services as part of an overall package of general support from the Council.
Contact Point: Graham Wilmshurst, Associate
Director Housing & Community Support F telephone no
823061 e-mail graham.wilmshurst@iow.gov.uk.