New plan to address homelessness in Camden approved by Cabinet
Yesterday [Wednesday, 10 December], Camden’s Cabinet agreed a new five-year strategy for reducing homelessness and rough sleeping in the borough.
The strategy sets out a bold, partnership-led plan for reducing homelessness, improving housing options, and supporting people with joined-up health and care services.
This follows a 14-week public consultation with residents, people with lived experience, community groups, frontline staff, landlords, and service providers who shared their views to help shape the final strategy.
The number of people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping is on the rise in London and across the country. In Camden, over 1,000 households are now living in temporary accommodation and there has been a 26% increase in the number of people experiencing rough sleeping.
Private rents in Camden are among the highest in the country – averaging £2,400 a month. Rents in Camden increased by 11.6% from the year before, compared with the London average increase of 5.7%. There are growing numbers of households in debt or rent arrears and national cuts to welfare and health services are placing more people at risk in our borough.
To support residents experiencing or who are at risk of homelessness, Camden invested £39 million this year into its homelessness and rough sleeping services to provide tailored welfare, housing and employment support. The Council is also building new hostels and temporary accommodation, hundreds of new social and affordable homes, and buying back family-sized properties to help ease housing pressures on the 8,500 families on the council’s housing waiting list.
No one should have to face homelessness alone or be left with no choice but to sleep rough. Yet this is becoming a painful reality for more and more people as levels of homelessness continue to rise. This is not acceptable - and I know many in our community feel the same. We are working incredibly hard to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping and this strategy sets out a bold, compassionate and collaborative response – shaped by residents with lived experience and built on the knowledge and strength of our local services and community partners.
Our new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy acknowledges the deep-rooted challenges driving this crisis - from rising housing costs to cuts to vital services. We are at a tipping point, already spending more than £26million a year on temporary accommodation, with costs expected to rise without urgent action. The strategy outlines the urgent action we will take locally, and the changes we need to see nationally – including increased funding for boroughs like Camden that are experiencing the sharpest effects of the housing crisis.
An important part of this strategy was recognising the significant impacts of homelessness on health and wellbeing as we know there is a clear link between poor mental and physical health and homelessness. That’s why we developed this new strategy alongside key partners across homelessness, housing, health and care services and employment services. We alone can’t address rough sleeping and homelessness, but by bringing together key partners from across services, we can better provide joined-up support really tailored to residents’ needs.
New initiatives over the next 5 years include:
- Reviews of Camden’s Allocation Scheme, the Homeless Young Persons Protocol, Camden’s Intermediate Housing Strategy and the Housing Renewal Assistance Policy
- Completing the build of 2 new blocks of family sized self-contained temporary accommodation providing 89 new homes, including 3 which are wheelchair accessible
- Lobbying to expand Camden’s Housing First programme, following a pilot of 30 1-bed homes with wrap around support provided to vulnerable people who were sleeping rough and in the adult pathway
- Buying back an estimated 280 family-sized homes building on the 26 properties already purchased by the Council
- Review of co-commissioning of the adult pathway hostel provision (vulnerable single adults) with mental health services
- Improving digital inclusion including Wi-Fi access in every room of Camden managed hostels, and working towards Wi-Fi access in every room for externally commissioned hostel provision
- Roll out of “personal passports” to improve residents’ access to support and reduce the need to repeatedly share personal information
- A new pet policy in Camden managed adult pathway hostels, subject to risk assessment, enabling people entering hostel accommodation to keep their pet where we know this can be a barrier to people accepting housing, working in partnership with StreetVet
- Expansion of supported accommodation for young people and exploration of initiatives like the ‘House Project,’ which helps care-experienced young people gain the skills, confidence and support networks they need to live independently
- A continued commitment to co-producing and co-designing services together with residents who have lived experience, including front line staff
Camden’s new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy aims to build on this work over the next five years to make homelessness “rare, brief and non-recurrent.”
The strategy is built on four priorities:
Prevent homelessness and rough sleeping
The council acknowledges that it cannot prevent homelessness or rough sleeping alone - to make real change the council will work with partners, communities and people to share resources, insight and data to identify people more at risk and intervene to support them as early as possible.
Work together to provide easy to access, person centred, inclusive and responsive services
Where homelessness does occur, the council will act to make it as brief as possible. Council and partner services will work closely together to provide information and support that responds to residents’ individual circumstances and is tailored to their personal needs.
Secure more accessible, affordable, and long-term housing
Stable housing is essential in preventing homelessness and enabling people to rebuild their lives after experiencing of homelessness. The council will invest in a range of good quality and affordable housing options to meet residents’ needs - from temporary accommodation to social housing.
Campaign for change nationally and share learning
Structural change is needed to end and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping, which addresses the underlying causes of poverty and housing insecurity and increases the powers and resources available to councils and the homelessness sector