A review of homelessness in the borough of Great Yarmouth

Executive Summary

Levels of Homelessness

The new duty to prevent and relieve homelessness, which commenced from April 2018, has afforded more people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, with more rights to advice and assistance, at an earlier stage, over a long duration. A consequence of this is that between April 2018 and March 2021, Great Yarmouth Borough Council assisted an additional 3,280 households. Compared to regionally and nationally, Great Yarmouth Borough Council consistently recorded more than twice the number of assessments per thousand households, of which there was a greater percentage of single households. Applicants aged 18 to 34 years old represent over half of households owed a duty. The main reasons for homelessness, are due to parents, other relatives or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate, or due to the end of a private rented sector tenancy. The number of main duty decisions has remained steady over the past four years, households with dependent children represent the largest priority need group. Allocation of social rented housing remains the most common method for bringing a main duty to an end. Rough sleeper numbers in Great Yarmouth peaked in 2019 with subsequent years to 2022 recording a 14%, 50% and 22% reduction respectively.

Child poverty rates in Great Yarmouth are higher and recorded a greater increase over the past 7 years compared to England and the East of England and the second highest percentage of child poverty in Norfolk. Compared nationally and regionally, Great Yarmouth has a greater proportion of the resident population receiving out of work benefits.

Preventing homelessness

As a result of emergency measures put into place to protect tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of households owed a prevention duty by Great Yarmouth Borough council due to an assured shorthold tenancy ending dropped, following the lifting of these measures this percentage almost doubled.  There has also been a gradual increase in the number of households evicted from supported accommodation. Despite a reduction in the percentage of households securing accommodation for at least 6 months, this solution remains the primary method for preventing homelessness.  Increased demand and limited supply of affordable housing is a contributing factor to the reduction of households being able to secure accommodation.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council's positive approach in promoting and developing the 'duty to refer' has resulted in a significant increase in the number of referrals. Dedicated posts concentrating on domestic abuse, hospital discharge and prison leavers have proved to be an invaluable resource in the development of partnership working with professional colleagues.  The provision of advice, support and information for public authorities and other referral agencies is still developing and opportunities for referrals from all partnership agencies should continue to be sought. The Single Homelessness Prevention Service, using outcome-based performance monitoring,provides a much-needed additional resource which has helped manage demand on the Housing Options service since May 2021. 

Securing accommodation

Great Yarmouth has just under 49,315 dwellings, of which 4,780 (9.9%) of dwellings in Great Yarmouth are unoccupied, almost equal to the total number of initial homelessness assessments (4,544) Great Yarmouth Borough Council has completed since 2018. Only one third of the dwellings are potentially available to secure for the prevention or relief of homelessness, of which less than half are guaranteed to be charged at a rent rate that is realistically affordable to people experiencing homelessness.

From April 2018, the number of households occupying temporary accommodation has increased across the whole of England (11%) and the East of England (5%). However, during the same period of time levels in Great Yarmouth have fallen by 8%. Great Yarmouth Borough Council most commonly used, their own stock or other types of temporary accommodation (such as private landlords). The Council had a higher relative usage of bed and breakfast, equating to 24% of all temporary accommodation. Over the past three years, the ratio of households with children compared to those who are single, has remained fairly consistent, with 45%-55% split  between the former and latter types of households. Great Yarmouth Borough Council remains unique amongst comparator areas for having a larger proportion of single households occupying temporary accommodation. The current portfolio of temporary accommodation does not meet demand, resulting in a higher usage of B&B compared with other areas. Great Yarmouth Borough Council does not have a Temporary Accommodation Placement Policy setting out how temporary accommodation is allocated to households.

There are 7,125 social rented housing dwellings in Great Yarmouth (15% of all dwellings of in the local authority area). Three-quarters (5,776) are owned and managed by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, with the remaining 25% (1,964) being owned and managed by 23 housing associations. The number of households on the Council's housing waiting list has begun to rise in recent years, but experienced a fall once again as the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. The most recent data, for 2022, shows 497 households registered on the housing waiting list, an increase of 56% compared to the record low from 2016 and a reduction of 93% compared to the record high from 2010. The number of new lettings made by all social landlords that own and manage stock in the Great Yarmouth local authority area, increased by 92 (17%), from 439 in 2019/20 to 531 in 2021/22. During this period two-thirds of all lettings were made by the Council, with the remaining one-third being made by housing associations. Lettings made to households that were either homeless or owed a homeless duty varied considerably over the three-year period, with the former reducing and the latter increasing. From 01 April 2021 until 31 March 2022, 9% of all new lettings (52 out of 531) went to homeless households. During the same year (2021/22), 26% (142 out 531) all new lettings were made to households owed a homelessness duty. A comparison of the proportion lettings to homeless households shows that higher rates in Great Yarmouth compared to elsewhere. The Council's Housing Allocation Scheme affords:

• Band B priority to applicants who are homeless but do not have a priority need or are intentionally homeless, with a local connection
• Band C priority to applicants who are homeless but have been found to not have a priority need or to be intentionally homeless and not have a local connection to the Council area
• Band C priority to applicants who have made an application for homeless assistance but are awaiting a decision as to what duty, if any, they are owed

There is estimated to be around 39,179 private rented dwellings in Great Yarmouth.

Median rent levels for 1, 2, 3 and 4 bed properties within Great Yarmouth are between 17% and 31% higher than Local Housing Allowance rates. The Council's Landlord Liaison Officer, has over the past 2 years, proved effective in building and improving working relationships with local landlords. However, given the reducing availability of affordable, suitable accommodation in the private sector, access to the private rented sector needs more investment. 

Support

The number of households with support needs has increased each year, most recent available data recorded by Great Yarmouth Borough Council shows the area as having the highest percentage of support needs compared both nationally and regionally. Households with a history of mental health problems represented the largest percentage of support needs.

With increasing demand for support/supported accommodation, silting up of direct access and a lack of higher tolerance supported accommodation for people with dual diagnosis, Great Yarmouth Borough Council should identify demand and how to make the best use of the existing support provision within the district.

Although advances have been made in collaborative working, there remains an urgent need for the further development of partnership working between Great Yarmouth Borough Council, neighbouring local authorities, other public bodies, voluntary organisations and others,  to attain an understanding and alignment of commissioning decisions, prioritise and identify unmet need, funding and actions to address gaps in provision. 

Great Yarmouth Borough Council's Outreach Team and Single Homelessness Prevention Service are effective in supporting people with a rough sleeping history to maintain their accommodation and few have returned to the street, this has resulted in a 50% reduction over the past four years. Other initiatives such as Housing First, transitional housing, Landlord Liaison Officer, domestic abuse workers and the Hospital Link Worker have positively impacted to reduce homelessness and will continue to develop. As will further specialist roles such as the Local Connection Officer, Ex-Offender Officer.

Resources for tackling homelessness

Over the past five years, as the levels of homelessness have increased, so has Great Yarmouth Borough Council's spending on tackling homelessness, from £872,000 up to £1,475,000, an overall increase of 40% (£603,000). However, net expenditure has exceeded the budget provided, with a difference of between 25% (£304,000) to 48% (£826,000). The largest expenditure associated with administering homelessness functions arises in employment costs, equating to between 75% and 83% of all expenditure. Expenditure associated with providing all private sector leased (PSL) temporary accommodation has more than doubled, as has cost for bed and breakfast (B&B) temporary accommodation. Great Yarmouth Borough Council is in receipt of £3.2m grant funding from the UK Government, which is intended to help those who are at sleeping rough. An additional £380,000 capital funding grant allocation was made to the Council, to enable it to procure additional accommodation to provide housing for people who would otherwise have to sleep rough. The significant investment from the UK Government has resulted in a revenue grant allocation to the Council of £1.8m for 2023/24.

The Housing Options staff structure, consists of an experience and knowledge Service Manager, supported by a four directly reporting posts, collectively make up a strong management team. The core of the service are eight full time equivalent housing option advisor posts. These posts are complimented by a handful of specialist roles. Of particular note is the Housing Options trainee role, which the Council have introduced in an effort to grow their own talent. A relatively newly established team of two full-time equivalent postholders is being formed to centralise the administration of housing allocation functions.  A further 12 posts, funded via the various revenue grants the Council receives from the UK Government as part of its Rough Sleeper Initiative, have been created to provide a proactive response to the needs of people experiencing street homelessness. Overall, the service is well staffed with sufficient numbers of employees to deal with current caseload demands.

One important role that the service lacks, is an officer to take responsibility for the implementation of the local homelessness strategy.

Consultation

Most people with lived experience of homelessness felt that having assistance to sustain a tenancy worked best to prevent repeat homelessness and receiving assistance before becoming homeless would work equally well.

All respondents ranked hostel and housing support services as either the best or second-best housing option, low-cost home ownership was ranked amongst the least best housing option. Stakeholders and staff believe vulnerable adults and people escaping domestic abuse should be prioritised for help to prevent homelessness.

The views of those with lived experience, stakeholders and staff are generally consistent in identifying the need to support people to sustain their tenancy, or where this is not possible, support people to secure a new tenancy by making available a supply of affordable accommodation.

Key Recommendations

1. Benchmark homeless, unemployment, child poverty and housing market data with other areas, to better understand the context of homelessness in Great Yarmouth compared to elsewhere.
2. The Council should:
3. adopt a prison release protocol with local prisons, based guidance published jointly by DLUCH and the Ministry of Justice.
4. Identify how to remove barriers for prison leavers to access social rented housing.
5. Work with NCC, the Prison Service and the National Probation Service prison leavers to identify revenue funding for a tenancy sustainment (floating support service) To help prevent re-offending and tenancy failure.
6. The Council should formulate and publish a Temporary Accommodation Procurement Policy and a Temporary Accommodation Allocation Policy. 
7. The Council should work with health and social care partners to adopt:
8. A joint working protocol with adult social care, based on Guidance Homelessness: Applying all our health, produced by Public Health England to help professionals prevent ill health, promote wellbeing and take action on homelessness.
9. The "Positive Pathway' model to better prevent young people aged 16-25 from becoming homeless. 
10. A hospital discharge protocol with NHS trusts and the clinical commissioning group, based on good practice published by Homeless Link  from a Department of Health funded pilot colleagues to develop and publish a hospital discharge protocol.
11. The Council should invest additional funding into increasing its PSL portfolio, which typically generates an operating service that can be used against costs for delivering functions, whilst also help reduce reliance on the use of B&B, which is increasingly proving to be costly for the Council.
12. An annual service user feedback event should be established to promote transparency and provide valuable evidence to inform commissioning priorities throughout Norfolk.

Document

• Homelessness review for Great Yarmouth Borough Council (PDF) [2MB]