Decision

The Council refers customers to whom it has a homelessness prevention or relief duty, and who have housing related support needs to different supported housing schemes. One such scheme, owned by Transform Housing & Support for residents with medium/high needs, is located at X. Residents pay their housing costs by claiming Housing Benefit and the cost of providing support is paid for by the Council from Homelessness Prevention Grant. As Transform Housing & Support owns and manages the accommodation it is not possible for another organisation to provide the support.
Note that one criteria for HPG is that at least 51% of HPG must be spent on prevention and relief, and no more than 49% on temporary or emergency accommodation. With homelessness increasing, it is vital to continue to fund initiatives to prevent/relieve homelessness to protect this grant funding stream.
These units are vital in the Council’s efforts to prevent and relieve homelessness in its borough. They are a key piece in the puzzle of managing homelessness and keeping emergency accommodation numbers as low as possible, whilst enabling the best outcome for customers.
The bedspaces deliver value for money because without them, the Council would incur the costs for 7 households x 52 weeks of the year in B&B, which is far higher than it would pay for emergency accommodation. At a rate of £55 per night (the cheapest possible rate), the cost of emergency accommodation to the Council would be £20,020 per household compared to a cost of £9,897 per household for support for a year. It is in the interests of local residents to be able to access supported housing within the borough to rebuild their lives, and aligns with the Corporate Priorities of an inclusive borough, a well run Council and providing decent and affordable housing.
There is budget available for this non key decision with the Housing Options budget, which was approved as part of the overall corporate budget at Full Council on 25/2/25.

Reasons for the decision

To continue to run a prudent, sustainable homelessness prevention and relief service, maximize the options available to residents, and minimize expenditure on costly emergency accommodation.

Alternative options considered

MUST be completed / actions explained. If there are no alternative options, state 'None'.
Officers are not able to consider alternative options for the provision of support – as the accommodation is owned by THS and the support is inextricably tied to the accommodation provided by THS.