New strategy to reduce number of rough sleepers in Northampton agreed by borough council

Northampton Borough Council’s cabinet agreed the new strategy, which is legally required every five years, at a virtual cabinet meeting on Wednesday (May 20).

The strategy takes into account new legislation and guidance, the findings of a review of homelessness in Northampton undertaken during autumn 2019, and the results and analysis of a public consultation carried out in February and March this year.

Four strategic objectives have been identified: creating effective and collaborative partnerships; preventing homelessness through early and targeted intervention; reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation and ensuring a sufficient supply of suitable housing for homeless households; and reducing rough sleeping and enabling rough sleepers to thrive.

The Conservative cabinet member for housing, Councillor Stephen Hibbert, said: “This strategy sets out how we’ll seek to achieve these objectives.

“We’re already working with officers from the other councils to develop a unitary strategy, and I hope this one will feed into that..

“All of this was prepared before COVID-19 and the recent provision of hotel accommodation, but much has been learned from that process.

“What’s critical with this is that we’ve been able to bring together all the participants in the town and work together. All those resources together hopefully this will get us the right result.”

It appears to mark a turnaround in relations between the various different organisations tackling homelessness in the town. Relationships between the various groups had been frosty in the past, but the establishment of a Single Homelessness Forum appears to have paved the way towards a new joined-up approach.

The strategy pledges to hold regular meetings of the Single Homelessness Forum, the Family Homelessness Forum, and to ‘improve communication, engage stakeholders and provide partners with the opportunity to intervene early to prevent homelessness’.

The strategy was welcomed by Labour councillor Jane Birch, who said: “I’m really heartened by this strategy and also I’ve been impressed with the work that has been going on since the outbreak of coronavirus. It’s been absolutely outstanding and the feedback has been illuminating and I think we’ve learned a huge amount from it.

“I hope we can build on that and maintain those relationships and foster the good work that has been done and move these people on. Congratulations to everyone who has been involved, and let’s hope this is the start of homes for all those who live on our streets, because it’s a very distressing thing for residents to pass every day in the street. Hopefully, this is the beginning of something really positive in housing our rough sleepers.”