Issue - meetings

That the Committee supports the updates provided against the Local Action Plan for Homelessness.

The Chief Officer presented an update on progress with the Council’s action plan to support the regional Homelessness Strategy.

He provided an overview of the activities under the three themes which reflected local priorities.  On the ‘People’ theme, good progress had been made in extending the range of support available to young people.  Attention was drawn to the ‘Streetlink’ app which enabled members of the public to report people rough sleeping to instigate support from the local outreach worker.  On the ‘Homes’ theme, the work of the Housing Solutions Team involved increasing access to private rented accommodation.  On ‘Services’, the success of the Preventing Evictions pilot would be rolled out across other teams.

Councillor Brown spoke about the difficulty in increasing access to private rented sector accommodation.  During discussion, she referred to a complex case involving an individual who was rough sleeping.  The Chief Officer said that the service had already engaged extensively with the individual on numerous occasions to offer support.  On capacity in the Night Shelter, the Team Leader explained that provision would be increased following a successful pilot.  On private rented accommodation, she spoke about plans to engage with private landlords in an attempt to overcome barriers.

Councillor Dave Hughes said that recent bad weather had affected availability in the Night Shelter and he welcomed plans to extend capacity.

On private rented accommodation, Councillor Shotton spoke about availability within a disused public house.  His comments about a modular accommodation scheme in South Wales were acknowledged by the Chief Officer who said that a report on the implications of a similar scheme in Flintshire would be considered by Cabinet.

The recommendation was moved by Councillor Reece and seconded by Councillor Ron Davies.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee supports the updates provided against the Local Action Plan for Homelessness.