New Forest District Council adds £1.3m to tackle homelessness amid jump of 23%

A FURTHER £1.3m will be ploughed into tackling a homelessness crisis in the district which has seen a big rise in the number of people needing help.

New Forest District Council’s ruling cabinet approved a major boost to the service, plus the creation of two temporary posts costing £92,000 per year, in an effort to deal with the emergency.

An officers’ report outlined the scale of the problem, stating family homelessness had jumped significantly over the summer months.

“In January 2022 there were only three families in emergency accommodation,” it said. “Over the summer months this consistently levelled out at around 40 families each month.”

This was largely due to private tenancies coming to an end because the landlord had sold or re-let the property, or because tenants had been evicted for falling behind with rents.

“Private landlords have informed officers they have been selling in increasing numbers due to their own financial pressures,” explained the report.

“Increasing regulation on the sector to be introduced in coming years is also predicted to have had an impact on the number of landlords.”

In August, there were just 18 properties in the New Forest advertised on the Rightmove website with a monthly rental below £1,400.

The report went on: “To secure private rented accommodation, homelessness officers are having to significantly increase the financial amounts required to secure accommodation, by providing incentive payments and rent-in-advance loans of six months.

“For family accommodation this is a significant outlay but is more cost-effective than paying for hotels or other such accommodation over a long period.”

To exacerbate matters, the number of homelessness cases each officer was dealing with was far too high, meaning they were unable to dedicate the time needed.

“Staff were working extra hours to keep up with demand, which was impacting on their morale,” the report explained.

“Officers work in a stressful and reactive environment, dealing with complex and sometimes distressing housing issues.”

Cllr Malcolm Wade, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group, said that while he recognised officers were doing “their absolute best”, the homelessness levels in the New Forest represented a failure by the Conservative administration.

“There weren’t enough officers to deal with cases effectively,” he said. “Also this is compounded by the fact we have a £4m underspend on housing developments, which means we had the money to build houses but we didn’t build them.

“It doesn’t take a genius to understand that this problem was coming – you’ve lost the plot on this and you’ve allowed the situation to get bad.”

Tory leader Cllr Edward Heron hit back, stating the council had a good “track record” of delivering new homes.

The cabinet member for housing, Cllr Jill Cleary, said the team “never give up” on homeless people.

Fellow Tory Cllr Derek Tipp said taxpayers would want to see the money spent on the council acquiring properties to house people rather than on emergency accommodation in the form of hotels and B&Bs.

“This is not something anyone wants to see capital assets spent on,” he said. “We should be housing these people ourselves.”

Cabinet members were unanimously in favour of funnelling more money into the service, with many praising officers for their “tireless” work in helping people made homeless.