The Scottish Government

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EFFECTS OF CHANGES

51. In fulfilling our monitoring remit, we have stated that we will judge success in preventing and tackling homelessness across the country against five high level national outcomes. These are:

• no-one need sleep rough;
• existing homelessness becomes more visible;
• sustainable resettlement is secured for people who have been homeless;
• fewer people become homeless in the first place; and
• the duration of homelessness is reduced.

Rough sleeping

52. Activity under the Rough Sleepers Initiative is now integrated within local authorities' homelessness strategies. The Initiative has been evaluated in research published recently ¹¹. There have been no national counts since our last report. The Scottish Executive will take further decisions as to future monitoring arrangements in light of this evaluation.

Existing homelessness becomes more visible

53. The rising levels of applications which we noted in our last report have continued, although the rate of growth has slowed slightly. Figures published in September 2004 ¹² indicated that 54,829 homelessness applications were made during the course of the year - a rise of 6% from the previous year. The 2012 planning subgroup will, over the course of 2005, identify those areas where rising levels of applications represents a particularly significant challenge in moving towards permanent housing for all unintentionally homeless people by 2012. This work will feed into the Ministerial statement on the phasing out of priority need which will be made later this year. The subgroup will also consider the supports which may be useful for local authorities in this position.
54. It will also be important to gain a better understanding of the range of reasons behind the continuing upturn in applications, and to recognise that it is possible that some homelessness continues to be hidden. For example, the Scottish Household Survey 2003 results released on 5 August 2004 indicated that 4% of adults now living in private households had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives but only 42% of these reported that they had had received help from local authority housing/homelessness departments during their last period of homelessness.
55. One of the main impacts of more homeless people becoming visible to 'the system' has been the growth in the use of temporary accommodation. The most recent official statistics ¹³ show that 7,135 households were accommodated in temporary accommodation under the homelessness legislation at 31 December 2004. This latest figure represents an increase of 14% compared to the situation as at 31 December 2003. The most recent figures also show an increase between 31 December 2003 and 31 December 2004 of 18% (from 1,849 to 2,174) in the numbers of households with children in temporary accommodation - with 108 of these in B&B accommodation (compared to 90 families in December 2003). We recognise that the impact on temporary accommodation is a key indicator of local authorities' ability to manage the increased duties which they are currently required to fulfil and believe this data should be scrutinised closely in relation to further extending these duties.
56. We are also concerned that pressures on local authorities caused by rising applications do not affect assessment decisions. In particular we will monitor the proportion of applications accepted as homeless, as any reduction may be worthy of further investigation.

Sustainable resettlement

57. We are concerned that we do not fully understand the reasons why some people applying under the homelessness legislation do not appear to receive the outcome to which they are entitled. Scottish Executive statistics for 2003-04 indicate that 71% of people assessed as priority homeless were re-housed as a result of that application. However, of those assessed as non-priority, only 28% received accommodation despite the fact that the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 requires that all households assessed as homeless receive a minimum of temporary accommodation, advice and assistance. This is an area we will consider further during the course of this year.
58. Audit Scotland have adopted a new performance indicator in relation to homelessness which includes measurement of the proportion of cases where a household is reassessed as homeless within 12 months of having a previous application closed. Data collected for 2003/04 show that on average 16% of cases fall into this category, although there are significant variations between local authorities (ranging from 0.1% of cases to 36.9%). It may be that recording practices account for some of this variation, as will the particular characteristics of certain local authorities.
59. The Scottish Executive has required that each local authority set specific targets for reducing repeat homelessness and we would strongly endorse the need for truly sustainable solutions to be found.

Fewer people becoming homeless in the first place

60. As has been highlighted above, official statistics continue to show an increase in the number of households applying under the homelessness legislation, and in the number of households being assessed as homeless. Although we welcome the uncovering of hidden homelessness, we would emphasise the importance of preventing the crisis of homelessness wherever possible. There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of current preventative measures and to ensure that good practice in preventing homelessness is identified and disseminated - this is an area the Raising Awareness and Good Practice subgroup will consider. In particular we would wish to reiterate the crucial role which good quality advice, housing and homelessness information and advocacy can play. We therefore welcome the work being carried out by Homepoint to help local authorities plan their advice services, and to help train staff. Homepoint are also working to ensure that the advice provided by local authorities meets the Scottish National Standards in Housing Advice and Information.

The duration of homelessness is reduced

61. Data published by Audit Scotland indicate that an average of 10 weeks was taken to process a homelessness case in 2003-04. Again there is a wide variation, ranging from an average of 2 weeks to an average of 25 weeks, across different local authorities. We recognise that there may be extremely good reasons for taking longer to close off an application and would prefer that time was taken to find and implement sustainable solutions. However we do not underestimate the debilitating effects which a prolonged period of homelessness can have and would like to see good practice regarding prompt assessment and rehousing procedures identified and disseminated.
62. The figures outlined above only relate to single episodes of homelessness and, as has been mentioned previously, there are a number of households who are homeless repeatedly. Some of these households can be homeless for a number of years, albeit that this is interspersed with periods of time in more stable accommodation. This can only be tackled through a focus on preventing repeat homelessness.

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