Venue: 145 King Street (Ground Floor), Hammersmith, W6 9XY. View directions
Contact: Debbie Yau Email: Debbie.Yau@lbhf.gov.uk
Link: Watch the meeting on YouTube
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: There were no apologies for absence.
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Declarations of Interest If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.
Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.
Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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To approve the minutes of the previous meeting. Minutes: RESOLVED The minutes of the meeting held on 23 July 2024 were agreed to be accurate.
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Rough Sleeping Update The report provides an update on rough sleeping in the borough and the services that are in place to house and support rough sleepers. A rough sleeper in the context of this report is someone who has been verified as rough sleeping by the Council’s outreach service and registered on the rough sleeper database, known as CHAIN.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair welcomed rough sleeping partners to the meeting.
Laura Palfreeman (Rough Sleeping Commissioning Manager) provided an update on rough sleeping in London and Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F) and the reasons accounted for the increase in rough sleeping. She outlined the rough sleeper pathway, accommodation outcomes achieved and partnership working with some examples whereby the rough sleepers who had refused to engage initially was offered accommodation. Laura then highlighted the challenges about rising demand, the lack of certainty over future resources and affordability of accommodation.
NOTE: Officer’s presentation is attached in Appendix 1
Presentation by External Partners
Councillor Adronie Alford enquired about the number of residents being provided with Housing First support by Thames Reach. Diana Ifemeni (Acting Lead Manager, Thames Reach) noted that the organisation was providing support to rough sleepers to take up about half of their current 31 tenancies. Under the whole-team approach, Thames Reach also provided support to help those sustain their tenancies or secure a permanent accommodation.
Elizabeth Odigie (Senior Operations Manager, Turning Point) introduced their work across H&F in close collaboration with the partners including the St Mungo’s hostel and weekly joint outreach with Thames Reach. Professional trainings were provided to different teams to raise their awareness around substance use and treatment pathways. Under the lived experience approach, ongoing recovery support was visible throughout the treatment journey with the services taken proactively to clients. Specialists like social workers, psychologists, and mental health wellbeing practitioners within the service delivered tailored and multi-faceted support.
Michael Angus (Director, Barons Court Project) said the Project was a day centre providing support to people living with mental health conditions at risks of homelessness. When the Project was first started 10 years ago, they received around 250 to 300 individuals a year with about 7,000 attendances of people with mental health needs (70%) and rough sleeping conditions (30%). Last year, the figures rose to 900 individuals with 14,000 visits comprising 5% with mental health conditions and 95% rough sleeping. He was concerned that the centre had to turn away people with mental health needs because of capacity constraints. Michael then outlined the Project’s holistic approach in splitting their services into three areas, i.e. Body (basic needs and medical care), Mind (handling benefits and housing forms, resume and job searching) and Spirit (activities related to arts, music, theatre, beach etc). The Project via its social enterprise called Homeless Made had sold some 35,000 amazing cards to raise money for the artists and the Project.
Stewart Proudly (Senior Service Manager, St Mungo’s) introduced the organisation’s accommodation pathway for homelessness in H&F which supported 129 people under 7 projects in any given night. Each individual was supported by a lead worker who executed a bespoke recovery plan which might include direct support from the Turning Point and/or NHS nursing team to meet their health needs. St Mungo’s had recently incorporated adult and social care into their services, with social workers providing different levels of care packages for clients having past ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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This report provides an update on the status of empty properties also known as voids in the housing service. This includes information on the current number of voids, improvements made over the past two years and an outline of the ongoing plan to reduce the number of vacant properties.
Additional documents: Minutes: John Hayden (Assistant Director of Repairs) provided an update on the status of empty properties, i.e. voids in the housing service, including the current number of voids, improvements made over the past two years, an ongoing plan to reduce the number of vacant properties for different areas, and voids audits and reassurance. He reckoned by about June 2025, the voids target business as usual position would be maintained at 60 properties while the rental loss at any given time would be less than 40 days.
Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) appreciated the good job done by the Repairs team to reduce the number of voids. He highlighted the lessons learnt, including focusing on recovery of the voids for residents’ use and enhancing the understanding of teams across the Housing Service about void management.
The Chair asked about the respective standards on recovering voids for council residents or as temporary accommodation for homelessness. John Hayden noted that they were two different types of voids. Voids properties turning into temporary accommodation for homeless people were not council stock but given by other housing bodies in the borough. All void properties of the Council met the Decent Home Standards upon recovery. Those used as temporary accommodation came in varied conditions and they might be recovered with or without decorations/flooring and meet the Decent Home Standards eventually.
Councillor Omid Miri was concerned about the impact of under-occupation during the recovery of void properties. John Hayden noted that starting about 6 weeks ago, the Council was incentivising people in under-occupied properties to move into some of the newly recovered properties as an option for independent living. The vacated properties would then be recovered for people on the housing register to bid for homes. He added that the voids recovery works were carried out by the term contractors.
Noting that potential residents might bid after viewing the void properties two weeks before completion, Councillor Miri was concerned the outstanding works might lead to their misinformation. John Hayden assured that the remaining works were just decorative finishing and the viewers would have received an online pack about the homes before viewing. He noted that surveys were conducted among residents six weeks after they had moved in to gauge the gap, if any, between expectation and reality.
Councillor Adronie Alford asked about the target dates of recovery completion of voids. John Hayden noted that it was 90+ days for major voids and capital works the current number of cases for which were 15 and 45 respectively. The major voids included structural works and major component replacement works whilst the capital works were more complicated with the majority of the voids having been subject to large insurance claims due to fire in tower blocks. He added that the remaining cases were targeted to complete within 60 days.
On Councillor Asif Siddique’s question of recovering private voids, John Hayden referred to the Council’s acquisition policy under the Asset Strategy whereby the Procurement team looked at opportunities for purchasing and recovering ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Dates of Future Meetings To note the dates of future meetings:
· 27 January 2025 · 23 April 2025
Minutes: The Committee noted the dates of future meetings:
· 27 January 2025 · 23 April 2025
Members noted the following reports would be considered at future meetings:
· 2025 Medium Term Financial Strategy · Housing Revenue Account Budget 2025/26 · Compliance Update |