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Welsh councils told to create rapid rehousing plans for rough sleepers in hotels
The Welsh government has told councils to develop “rapid rehousing” plans for rough sleepers placed in emergency accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic.
New guidance published yesterday said the plans will form the basis of bids to the new £20m fund announced by the Welsh government last week to ensure rough sleepers do not return to the streets after the pandemic.
Rapid rehousing is the concept where homeless people should be provided with permanent housing as quickly as possible, rather than spending long periods of time in shelters or temporary accommodation.
According to the guidance, Welsh local authorities will be expected to utilise a range of support models in their plans, including Housing First and floating support.
The guidance also said that councils’ plans should also include proposals to increase the availability of both social and private rented housing for homeless people as well as bringing empty properties back into use.
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Solutions for migrants with no recourse to public funds who are unable to access benefits due to their immigration status must also be considered.
According to the Welsh government, more than 800 rough sleepers and those in precarious housing situations have been moved into emergency accommodation during the lockdown.
This latest guidance follows the publication of the Welsh government’s new Strategy for Preventing and Ending Homelessness in October last year, in which ministers confirmed plans to reshape services around a rapid rehousing approach.
The approach is one that has already been adopted in Scotland, where councils have spent the past few years developing plans to transition to rapid rehousing.
In a foreword to the new guidance, Welsh housing minister Julie James said: “Our collective aim is to ensure that everyone we have brought in to temporary accommodation is supported into long-term accommodation.
“Beyond that, we aim to transform our whole approach to homelessness provision so that those who present as homeless each and every day experience a system focused on real prevention and where that fails, as it occasionally will, homelessness is rare, brief and non-repeated.”
