Targets missed on homelessness

The team that tackles homelessness in South Holland are ‘moving in the right direction’, it’s been claimed, after it was revealed staffing problems had led to it missing a host of targets.

It was highlighted as an area of concern in a report of South Holland District Council’s performance between January and March this year.
The document to its Performance Monitoring Panel said the authority aimed to have 70 per cent of its current cases in accommodation, but had achieved just nine per cent.
It also said that on 50 per cent of occasions it had not opened cases before the person had become homeless. The target is 70 per cent.
Panel chairman Coun Bryan Alcock expressed disappointment there was no numbers of homeless people included with the report.
“There’s an indication there’s a worrying problem,” he said. “We need to think outside of the box.”
The report to the committee stated that the team had four new starters and two outstanding vacancies.
It continues: “The team have continued to work through high numbers of homelessness cases however the capacity to proactively engage with people at risk of homelessness (prevention stage) has continued to be challenging.
“A new post has been introduced to the team, ‘Prevention Officer’, who will provide much needed capacity to support cases that are open in the prevention stage of an application. Other additional activities will include identifying options to prevent homelessness for example seeking additional financial support mechanisms and positively promoting.”
Coun Tracey Carter, the council’s portfolio holder for communities and operational housing, said: “The figures are from quarter four and we’re already moving into a much stronger position.
“There’s a couple of tweaks we’ve done in the way we’re working to help move things forward. We’re taking deep dives to look into what we can do.
“I think we all know the country is in a difficult position and the impact it is having, but I can say the team is moving forwards and working extremely hard on this.
“I’m confident that, from a South Holland point of view, we have this under control and will be in a better place in the next few years, particularly from a financial point of view.”