Residents invited to help shape new homelessness strategy for Adur and Worthing
Amid a worsening housing situation in Adur and Worthing – and across the UK – the councils have launched a consultation for residents to share their thoughts.
Adur and Worthing Councils’ new draft homelessness and rough sleeping strategy outlines a plan to ‘move beyond managing homelessness reactively’.
They intend to do this by developing strategies to ‘proactively prevent it’, make it brief when it does occur and ensure it doesn’t happen again for those who experience it.
"Like much of the country, Adur and Worthing are grappling with a worsening housing situation,” a spokesperson for the councils said.
"There is not enough social housing to meet local people’s needs, house prices and rents in the private sector are becoming more unaffordable, and an increasing number of households are finding themselves being made homeless.
"The cost of living has led to a growing number of homeless individuals with complex and multiple needs approaching Adur and Worthing Councils for help.”
The ‘soaring cost’ of providing temporary housing has also left the councils facing ‘increasing funding and resource constraints’.
The new five-year strategy highlighted the councils’ plans to ‘work more closely’ with partners to develop a ‘stronger multi-agency response’ to homelessness.
They are also focused on ‘significantly reducing’ the number of households in temporary accommodation and to ‘help people move forward from homelessness in the long-term’.
Lee Cowen, Adur's cabinet member for housing and citizen services, said: “This strategy aims to shift our approach from crisis management to early intervention.
"By acting proactively we will help people break the cycle of homelessness, move forward and sustain independence as well as substantially decrease our expenditure.”
Ödül Bozkurt, Worthing's cabinet member for housing and citizen services, said ‘everyone deserves a safe, secure and affordable home’.
"But the increasing pressures of the cost of living crisis mean more people need help with homelessness,” she added.
"By working more closely with partners and neighbouring local authorities, we aim to create a unified approach to prevent homelessness in the long term.”
As part of the consultation process, the draft strategy was reviewed by the councils’ Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JOSC) at the Shoreham Centre.
Residents had been encouraged to submit questions to JOSC to be answered on the night.
Feedback was received from committee members and Adur and Worthing’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Prevention Partnership, which has been ‘incorporated into the strategy now out for consultation’.
The councils are keen to hear from ‘as many people as possible’ about what they think of the strategy. The consultation runs until midnight on Tuesday, October 14.
You can read the draft homelessness and rough sleeping strategy and have your say by visiting the consultation page: https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/homelessness-strategy-consultation/
To request a paper copy of the consultation, or for help to completing the questions, email [email protected].