Give your views on the Draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023-2028
It is time to review our Draft Homelessness Strategy which underpins the services we provide directly and in partnership with other organisations.
The overarching aim is to deliver an accessible service that helps prevent homelessness and assists homeless households in finding long term affordable homes. The Council remains committed to working with partners in the statutory and voluntary sectors and with residents themselves to achieve this goal.
Your views and experiences are important to helping us deliver the right services at the right time to households facing homelessness, and we want to hear your views on the new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy that sets out how we plan to tackle homelessness.
The Homelessness Act 2002 requires all housing authorities to have a Homelessness Strategy in place and review this at least every 5 years. The Council has been working with its key partners to develop an updated Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy that sets the framework for how we tackle homelessness over the next five years.
Our draft strategy covers the many activities we undertake to prevent homelessness and considers specific groups with support needs, joint working and options to deliver accommodation.
We are seeking feedback on the draft strategy document and the proposed priorities for action going forward. We want to hear from anyone who may be affected or wishes to comment on how the Council is addressing homelessness in the future.
The consultation on the updated strategy document and delivery plan ends at midnight on the 29th of October 2023, and we welcome your comments before that date.
Before you respond to this consultation, please have a look at the draft documents.
How to have your say
If you have any questions about this consultation, please email us at fbourke@arkconsultancy.co.uk, or telephone 07552241276.
Next steps
After the consultation closes on 29th October 2023, we will review the feedback received and where appropriate include this in an updated strategy document and delivery plan. The final strategy and delivery plan will be considered by the Council’s leadership team and the Scrutiny Committee at their meeting in December 2023 before being adopted and implemented.
The Council and its partners will be able to continue to influence and adapt the overall Strategy as it is implemented over the next 5 years. We will review the high-level priorities and delivery plan in the Homelessness Strategy on an annual basis to ensure that it continues to address local homelessness and rough sleeping. The final document will be made available on the Council website after it has been through the Council’s approval process.