Policy development relating to rough sleeping The Homelessness and Housing Support Directorate was formed towards the end of 2003 with the merger of the Homelessness Directorate and the Housing Care and Support Division. The Directorate's key priorities include: — Sustaining successes in reducing the most acute homelessness problems of rough sleeping and the use of B&B hotels for families with children. — To ensure that the new Supporting People programme is placed on a sustainable footing and that good value for money is achieved in the delivery of housing-related support at the local level, to help vulnerable people sustain independent living. The Government met its target that, by March 2004, no homeless family with children should be placed in a bed and breakfast hotel other than in an emergency, and even then for no more than six weeks. The Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 came into force on 1 April, to reinforce and sustain the B&B target. Outreach teams have also seen their remit widened over the past year to tackle all elements of street life rather than just rough sleeping. Teams now work with street drinkers, people who are begging and street workers as well as rough sleepers. Local authorities have continued to take a strategic approach to homelessness in their borough over the past year as a result of requirements by Supporting People and the Homelessness Act 2002. This has resulted in an increasingly proactive rather than reactive approach being taken to homelessness. Combined with this has been the emergence of a regional and sub-regional approach for housing. In 2003 London saw the establishment of the London Housing Board and its development of the first London Housing Strategy. The Board and Strategy are designed to advise central government on the allocation of funding from the Single Regional Pot for housing investment. As a response to these developments local authorities have formed themselves into sub-regional groups and developed sub-regional housing strategies. Supporting People in 2004 celebrated its first birthday. However, there continues to remain uncertainty over levels of funding for local authorities' Supporting People budgets. The Treasury has placed a requirement on local authorities to find efficiency savings within their SP budgets.
Report