Haringey Council have announced a new strategy to tackle homelessness

Haringey Council have announced a new strategy to tackle homelessness across the borough.Cllr Alan Strickland, Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning, said: “It is appalling that anyone has to sleep rough on the streets in the 21st century.”

The new strategy will have an emphasis on early intervention to prevent people becoming homeless. It also aims to increase the amount of accommodation available and to help the council work with those living in temporary accommodation to find a home. “These new strategies will see us working closely with charities and community groups to meet challenges together,” Alan said in a statement on the council’s website. He added: “Preventing homelessness is a complex challenge and there are no easy answers.”

John Cottrill, Senior Communications Officer at Haringey Council, said the new strategy “makes preventing homelessness a shared priority between the council and its partners and aims to do this prevention work in the community before problems result in people becoming homeless.”

Gloria Saffrey, director of CARIS Haringey, a charity that works with the homeless in Haringey, said that there needs to be “an emphasis on keeping people in their homes”, so long as those homes are “suitable and people are happy to remain in them.” She added that: “People want to stay in Haringey,” and that they should not be “moved out of London if it’s cheaper.”

The council agreed to the plan at a meeting on Tuesday the 6th March 2018. Homelessness is rising across England, official statistics show that it increased by 15% in 2017. This plan aims to help the 3,000 households currently in temporary accommodation in Haringey.

“We know that levels of rough sleeping and homelessness in Haringey are unacceptably high, and we are committed to doing more to tackle the root causes,” Alan said. 

Last year the government passed the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which aims to tackle the national problem of rising homelessness. This new strategy will bring Haringey inline with the new requirements the act places on the council.When asked about this John said: "It does achieve this, and puts a greater emphasis on prevention and on working with those to whom, prior to the Act, councils did not have a statutory duty, in particular younger people threatened with homelessness.”

“Haringey has the third highest level of households in temporary accommodation in London," John said in a statement. Gloria added that: “Rising rents and the benefit cap have put huge pressure on families in Haringey.”

Under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 local authorities are required to make their services meet the needs of certain groups that are at a high risk of homelessness. These groups include: care leavers, people leaving prison, people leaving the armed forces, victims of domestic abuse, people leaving hospital and people with mental illnesses or impairments.

“The strategy outlines how we will work with the public agencies that have a statutory duty to refer cases to the council, to ensure our obligations to these groups are met,” John confirmed.