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Views sought on new homelessness plan
01/12/2020
Council seeks our opinion on its new draft strategy for homelessness and rough sleeping
Cherwell District Council wants our thoughts on its draft new homelessness and rough sleeping strategy. A consultation has been launched this week and last for seven weeks.
The draft features proposals and commitments, including one to learn lessons from the response to the pandemic, which has seen Cherwell help 78 individuals into temporary accommodation who would otherwise have been at risk of rough sleeping.
Councillor John Donaldson, Cherwell District Council’s Lead Member for Housing, said: “The pandemic has highlighted the problem of ‘hidden’ homelessness. This is experienced by people who are at risk of rough sleeping, or whose accommodation is not secure or long term. Our ambition is to identify the root causes of homelessness, understand the care and support that each person needs, and to make earlier interventions to prevent them sleeping rough.”
The current homelessness strategy for 2018 to 2020 is now coming to an end. Despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic the council reports that it accomplished 65 of the 70 actions set out in that document.
These included 425 successful interventions to prevent and reduce evictions. 180 grants were issued, totalling £1,079,000, to help disabled people to live independently at home.
Other achievements include delivering 907 affordable housing units in partnership with registered providers and providing grants to voluntary sector organisations to support their work with vulnerable people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Cllr Donaldson continued: “From March this year, we saw a significant rise in the number of people facing homelessness. The council’s achievements in helping them are notable, but the pandemic underscores the need for us to renew our long-term strategy. We want to cement the flexible approach we adopted during COVID-19, so that we can rise to the challenges of similar emergencies in future.
“Defeating homelessness involves work with a number of local partners, including the agencies who deliver emergency accommodation, and our fellow Oxfordshire councils. This spirit of collaboration, in particular with Oxfordshire County Council, will help us make the most of the expertise we have at our disposal and make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable people in Cherwell and across the county.”
You can participate in the consultation here.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam
Hannah On 01/12/2020 at 5:15 pm
Wouldn’t the opinions of charities who work with them be more valuable? Each person has their own set of circumstances to become homeless and individual requirements to changing this? Rehab for substance misuse/therapy/and a stepping stone approach to some kind of independence? Warden accommodation? Some can’t run a home, some don’t have rent/bond,