Norwich City Council Home Page

Background

The former Council section that dealt with homelessness was re-structured in 2004: as a result 66% of staff was replaced. All team members attended an intensive training programme.

Achievements
This has assisted Norwich City Council in delivering a service that is geared to both prevent homelessness, and help people find the most sustainable housing solution for themselves.

The success of our new approach is reflected in our performance indicators - we have reduced the numbers in temporary accommodation by 83.9% within 2 years. We have almost halved the numbers of homelessness applications and reduced the number of acceptances by over 50%. We have consistently provided good quality housing advice and provided options to aid us in the prevention of homelessness.

We have worked hard to develop better ways of working with the voluntary & statutory sectors, customers and other Council departments. We recognise the importance of partnership working and developing relationships

Initiatives
In just 18 months the following schemes, working methods and initiatives were developed and implemented:
· The creation of a new housing advice team, who are always the first contact for those seeking housing assistance.
· A new allocations policy which aims to assist households before their circumstances deteriorate to the point where a homelessness presentation is necessary
· A homelessness prevention fund used flexibly to respond to a households circumstances e.g. Payment of a household's rent arrears to prevent a private landlord taking action
· A private sector leasing scheme
· A landlord insurance scheme
· A rent deposit scheme
· A sub-regional Night Stop Scheme for young people
· A sub-regional empty homes leasing scheme for which we have secured £900,000 capital funding from the Single Regional Housing Pot.
· A Sanctuary Project


Working arrangements
In addition to the above a range of joint working arrangements have been developed with statutory and voluntary sector partners to ensure that clients get the best possible service. These include:

· An agreed working protocol with Children's Services for intentionally homeless families
· A sub-regional protocol with Broadland and South Norfolk Councils to reflect the fact that homelessness does not fit neatly within administrative boundaries and effective joint working is necessary.
· A protocol for dealing with prolific offenders and young offenders
· We continue to operate a long standing and very successful homelessness forum with our sub-regional housing partners and statutory and voluntary sector partners
· MAPPA - Multi Agency Public Protection Agency
· DIP - Drug Intervention Team
· DAAT - Drug and Alcohol Action Team.


In the pipeline
We also have a number of further initiatives, which are currently developing, these include:
· A sub-regional Choice Based Lettings Scheme for which we have received £100,000 grant funding from DCLG
· A joint protocol with Children's Services and Connexions for dealing with homeless young people
· A review of hostel accommodation, the findings and recommendations which has gone out to draft consultation (Hostel Strategy 2007). It is hoped that when implemented we will be in a position to make best use of all hostel accommodation across the housing sub-region.




Spokesperson: Kristine Reeves, Acting Head of Strategic Housing Services

Regional Homelessness Champions Home Page