Significant strides have been made tackling homelessness in Perth and Kinross, councillors will be told.
Due to the success of a number of initiatives, the council is on track to achieve the Scottish Government’s 2012 target on homelessness ahead of time.
Tomorrow the housing and health committee will consider a report on the progress of the council’s homelessness strategy, which outlines the positive steps it has made towards achieving its aims.
The strategy aims to tackle homelessness by providing information and advice, accommodation to people who become homeless, and a range of quality housing support.
The committee will hear that since the implementation of the homelessness strategy in February a number of services have been introduced and existing services developed. The result is hugely improved outcomes for homeless people.
The Scottish Government said all local authorities should phase out “priority need” in homelessness cases by 2012 and accept a statutory rehousing duty to all unintentionally homeless people. The council is now able to achieve this.
Among the results achieved since the strategy’s implementation is the number of former homeless people successfully sustaining tenancies which at 92% is now one of the highest in Scotland.
Additionally, the average time required to identify and provide suitable settled accommodation for homeless people has reduced from nearly 36 weeks to just over 29 weeks.Tenancies createdSome 311 tenancies have been created through the Rent Bond Guarantee Scheme, which works with accredited landlords to give people access to private sector tenancies without need for a cash deposit, and the number of temporary accommodation units has risen to 285 including specialist accommodation for families with children at Rio House.
The report to go before councillors notes that in 2010-11, 115 additional units of affordable housing were completed and work with private landlords has continued to create more tenancies.
A housing options approach to homelessness has been introduced to encourage people to consider the full range of accommodation options available and the number of people with children placed in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation has reduced significantly, and overall B&B placement is dropping.
Housing and health convener Councillor Peter Barrett welcomed the contents of the report, saying: “People become homeless for a wide variety of reasons. Homelessness can affect anyone, from any walk of life, and it’s vital that as a council we are in a position to help as many of them as we can. The homelessness strategy is allowing us to do that.
“This report shows excellent progress has been made towards achieving the aims of the strategy. We have introduced a raft of innovative policies, measures and supports in the last few years that have significantly improved outcomes for homeless people in Perth and Kinross.
“As a result of our hard work we now find ourselves in the position where we will meet the 2012 national target ahead of time, which is excellent news. However, there are still significant challenges ahead. Welfare reforms and continued economic hardship means that homelessness will continue to be a problem for all local authorities in coming years.”
The council has been working with Shelter Scotland to identify empty properties to help ease the area’s homelessness problem and is the latest to sign up to the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership’s website, which it is hoped will bring privately-owned, long-term empty homes back into use.
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user Phil Hawksworth.