Tackling the challenge of providing temporary accommodation in the Highlands
The high cost of temporary housing
The cost to the Highland Council of providing temporary accommodation is spiralling, as many households don't manage to access housing benefit. There are lots of different reasons for this - many people who find themselves homeless can't provide the proof of identity needed within the timescales set by Council Officers, particularly if they are only in temporary accommodation for a relatively short time as many 'non-priority' households are.
Whether this is because they have other problems to cope with, because they aren't sufficiently part of society's bureaucratic system to have the correct papers or because the system is far too complex for them, it results in the council bearing the brunt of these costs.
Together with our colleagues in Finance Services we're trying to tackle these issues, but this is one aspect of a local authority's business where there are clashing priorities - on the one hand, there is our council's commitment to reduce homelessness and provide best value homeless services and on the other the council's priority to reduce fraud, through use of the verification framework, and improve on performance targets.
Moreover, when we place people in bed and breakfast accommodation, only around half the costs are covered by housing benefit. We're looking for solutions to this and if anyone has any good ideas, please let us know.
Reducing bed and breakfast use
Ideally we'd like to reduce our reliance on bed and breakfast accommodation. Our use of bed and breakfasts is unacceptably high - especially for families with children - but it's often necessary and sometimes a saviour particularly in the remote rural parts of the Highlands.
In these communities, homeless households sometimes prefer to live in bed and breakfasts, albeit for a short time, so that they can live close to existing support networks and schools rather than moving to more suitable accommodation several miles away in areas where transport is scarce.
This brings us back again to the key issue in the Highlands - without a substantial increase in the supply of affordable housing, we won't be able to significantly reduce our homeless problem.
Our new temporary accommodation duties have emphasised to us the difficulties that we are going to face providing permanent housing to all homeless households in 2012. We hope that those who hold the purse strings acknowledge this through increased investment in housing and infrastructure.
Further information
If you would like to contact Hilary to find out more, please email practicescotland@shelter.org.uk in the first instance.
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The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Shelter.
