Faced with increasing demand, reducing budgets, falling social housing and wide-ranging welfare reforms, it is clear that that there is no silver bullet and councils cannot tackle this challenge alone.
Key messages
It is a tragedy when a person becomes homeless. Councils want to end homelessness and work hard to support those who become homeless to get into accommodation and, where they can, to prevent it happening in the first place. This includes helping people develop the skills needed to find work, improve their health and wellbeing or gain access to family or relationship support.
There are a number of structural factors that make homelessness more likely, including the rise in the number of people struggling as rents increase at a faster rate than incomes. Faced with increasing demand, reducing budgets, falling social housing and wide-ranging welfare reforms, it is clear that there is no silver bullet and councils cannot tackle this challenge alone.
The Homelessness Reduction Bill is far more workable than the original draft following productive engagement of councils and the LGA by Bob Blackman MP and the Bill's supporters in its development. We have been clear from the outset that all new duties proposed in the Bill must be fully funded into the future if they are to deliver on our collective ambitions to better prevent and resolve homelessness.
Councils are delivering homelessness strategies that seek to respond to local conditions. Local approaches, led by councils, are best placed to succeed in reducing homelessness, as they are able to shape housing markets and target the delivery of services to prevent and respond to homelessness.
