Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Hughes introduced the report which confirmed the outcome of a recent Audit of the management of temporary accommodation within Flintshire.  The audit had highlighted a number of areas for improvement and was categorised as a Red Audit Report.

            The Audit Report was due to be presented to Governance and Audit Committee on 14^th March 2022.  The report provided background to the request for the audit, the audit key findings and the process of service improvement required to address the risks identified.

            The Chief Executive explained that temporary accommodation was “interim housing” which was provided to people who were homeless (singles / couples / families) and were owed duties under the Housing Wales Act (2014) by the Council.  The service was delivered through the Homeless Team.

            The current portfolio of properties was a mixture of houses of multiple occupation (HMO), self-contained flats and houses which were leased from private landlords, along with a small number of Council HRA properties.

            The demand for Temporary Accommodation and Emergency Accommodation had grown significantly on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic with Welsh Government requiring all homeless people to be accommodated through the “everyone in” directive.  Pre-COVID-19 the portfolio had a high number of vacancies with properties empty, but since COVID-19 and the additional duties to house more people, extra properties via HRA had been secured to meet the increased demand.  The service also relied on hotel and B&B accommodation.  Demand was likely to continue to grow as the pandemic was exited and recovery entered into.

RESOLVED:

That any comments be provided ahead of the report being presented to Governance and Audit Committee on 14^th March 2022.