Council review of support for single homeless to build on successes and extend pioneering approach

Extending a pioneering and highly effective programme to prevent homelessness and bring single homeless people into safer, lasting accommodation with tailored support is recommended by the first phase of a wider review of the council’s support for single homeless people.

The review of the ‘Resettlement Pathway’ which supports street sleepers and single homeless people through hostels, shared housing and into settled tenancies, was initiated with a view to current contracts coming up for renewal.

The review involved a wide range of participants including people with lived experience of homelessness and considered all options to build on the council’s current success via Housing First, Housing Navigators and Private Rented Sector Officers. It aimed to prevent a revolving door which can still see some people move from street sleeping into hostels and shared houses but then end up back on the street.

The specialist services already offered by the council, support people who often have complex needs, unsettled and risk-filled lives. Many have substance misuse and mental health problems and may have been in and out of institutions and hostel-type accommodation for years. City of York Council has helped to lead the way nationally with a programme which puts a stable home at its centre together with bespoke, and often open-ended, support.

To continue to improve outcomes for single homeless people, the council wants to extend this programme, whose success is reflected in the funding it secures year on year.

The Housing Navigator model based on early intervention and intensive support is not only successful but also very much the direction of travel of future Government funding. It provides longer-term, more intensive and persistent support, tailored to individual needs. Shown to be more effective with people who are unwilling or unable to engage, the programme will enable the Navigators to support complex clients into more permanent accommodation, to work with landlords, and mobilise other agencies and to co-ordinate support packages to increase the chances of success.

The second phase of the review will focus on the contracts that deliver hostels, shared houses and other supported accommodation and will be progressed during 2023.

Councillor Denise Craghill, Executive Member for Housing and Safer Communities, said: “The first stage of this review has shown that an intensive, first point of contact delivers better outcomes. By offering open-ended, tailored and intensive support at their first encounter with single homeless people on the streets, the street navigators have led many entrenched rough sleepers to engage with services, successfully keep their accommodation and break the cycle of recurrent homelessness.

“Moving into a home with consistent and effective wraparound support and maintaining that home as a lasting, safe space improves life expectancy, independence and a higher quality of life.”

The Decision Session will be held on 9 February at 10am, and the full report is at: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=13543&x=1