York City Council has drafted a five-year plan to reduce homelessness which is open for public consultation.
The new draft was published on the the City of York Council Website and will be open for feedback until Friday 15th November.
Following a review of their 2018 to 2023 action plan ‘Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Together’, this new strategy aims to make homelessness in York “rare, brief and non-recurring” by building on existing structures.
It will focus on rapidly re-housing those facing homelessness and help those at risk avoid spending time in a hostel or temporary accommodation.
It also aims to give attention to the specific needs of disabled people and domestic abuse victims to prevent rough-sleeping and is hoping to achieve the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation.
Executive Member for Housing at City of York Council Michael Pavlovic, said: “Homelessness and rough sleeping on our streets is a problem for not just an individual, but for us all and we need to do everything we can to end it.”
He added: ”We have spent time trying to get the right approach, talking to those who work with and have been homeless, as well as specialist academics in this area.”
This draft has been developed with the help of the York Homelessness Forum, a body made up of several statutory and voluntary agencies.
All feedback and data from this consultation will be used to inform the new Homelessness Strategy which will be presented to the Council’s Executive to consider in December 2024.
To make this new plan, a review of the previous strategy was conducted.
It was found that there has been a significant reduction of the number of people sleeping rough in York. Using street count figures, it was estimated that there were 29 homeless people in 2017 and 15 in 2023 (4, using a late 2023 estimate).
A further 1,174 successful homelessness preventions took place from 2018 to 2023 and a total of 4,035 statutorily homelessness households were supported from 2018 to 2023 across both prevention and relief.
Whilst the new plan specifies that “the supply of suitable and affordable homes” is the key to its success, it also acknowledges that “a primary driver of homelessness in the City of York is the City’s ongoing housing affordability challenge”.
This has been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis in 2021.
I spoke to the Secretary of Shelter Support Kian Caisley about the issue of homelessness in York.
Shelter Support is a 50-member, student-led volunteering project at the University which aims to tackle homelessness through fundraising and volunteering initiatives.
In collaboration with SASH-UK, a charity working to prevent youth homelessness, they are participating in the Yorkshire Coast 10K on 20th October to raise awareness and funds for this important cause.
Caisley said: “I think when a lot of people picture homelessness in their head, they get this stereotype of someone sleeping rough on the streets, but a lot of the time, they don’t see that it can be very young people who are experiencing… homelessness.
“The homelessness issue is very very visible, take any day walking through the city centre and the amount of people that are sleeping rough on any given day I find… [to be] more prevalent than in other cities, especially for such a small city centre.”
Caisley also spoke positively about the Council’s planned expansion of Housing First with 250 additional homes.
“Looking at Housing First with the additional 1 bed homes for the next five years is going to make a big difference,” Caisley said.
Pavlovic has encouraged the public to join the consultation of this new plan, and said: “Your support will add to our strategy and help build hope and homes for all facing homelessness.”