The Government must provide long-term accommodation for the homeless instead of concentrating on emergency supplies, a review of the Department of the Environment's homelessness strategies has found.
There is a "dearth of long-term accommodation options" for the homeless because the Government has concentrated resources on emergency short-term supplies, according to independent economic consultants Fitzpatrick Associates.
Emergency accommodation supplies were "largely sufficient" in major urban centres and it was considered that "provision of long-term accommodation with the support necessary to maintain occupancy of that accommodation is more appropriate than the provision of transitional accommodation".
The stock of housing for the homeless should be provided through local authorities and the voluntary sector. However the potential of the private-rented sector should also be exploited to a far greater extent than previously.
The report commends the Access Housing Unit run by Threshold, which acts as a liaison between homeless people and private landlords and creates a "portfolio" of landlords willing to rent to the homeless. Its success showed there was "considerable potential" for expanding the use of the private rented sector.
While independent living would be possible for a great number of homeless people, long-term supported living should be developed. This would involve on-site specialist care from the health sector to cater for the needs of homeless people with "severe psychiatric problems".
In this area there was a need for improved co-ordination of funding between the Department of the Environment and the Department of Health.
The report reviewed the Government's dual policies, the Integrated and Preventative Homeless Strategies. There had been "substantial progress" in all aspects of homelessness over the past five years. However there were some areas where little or no progress has been made.
The preventive strategy had recommended the Prison Service build and operate transitional housing units as part of their overall strategy for preparing prisoners for release. It had also said that records should be kept of the type of accommodation homeless people went to when discharged from general hospitals for mental health facilities, but these had not been advanced.
The consultants' report says consideration should be given to establishing a dedicated system to ensure that discharge policies are adequate and being implemented. But it recommends that ex-offenders should not be housed in dedicated accommodation but dealt with in terms of their individual housing needs.
