Homelessness prevention by councils rises
Author: Heather Spurr in Inside Housing |
The number of households councils prevented from becoming homeless increased by 15% last year compared to the previous 12 months, official statistics reveal.
Figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) today show preventions in England rose from 181,900 to 209,300 between 2012/13 and 2013/14.
Homelessness prevention involves giving people ways to address their housing needs to avoid homelessness by assisting them to obtain alternative accommodation or enabling them to remain in their existing home.
There was a 12% fall in the number of relief cases over the same peroiod from 21,000 to 18,500. Homelessness relief occurs when council has been unable to prevent homelessness but helps someone to secure accommodation, even though the local authority is under no statutory obligation to do so.
The DCLG’s homelessness prevention and relief statistics also show that the total number of homelessness prevention or relief cases increased by 12% to 227,800 in 2013/14. Of these, 209,300 (92%) were preventions and 18,500 (8%) were cases of relief.
The two most common prevention actions were help to resolve problems with housing benefit (24,400 cases, or 22%) and steps such as resolving anti-social behaviour or tackling disrepair through action against landlords (19,800 cases, or 18%).
Communities Minister Kris Hopkins, who has responsibility for homelessness, said: ‘Today’s figures at demonstrate the hard work of local authorities who have intervened early to help people who might otherwise have become homeless.’