Agenda item

This report provides an overview of hidden homelessness and data which gives insight into the level of hidden homelessness in the Hammersmith and Fulham borough.

Clare Dorning (Head of Homelessness Prevention and Assessment) presented the report, including an overview of hidden homelessness and data which gave an insight into the level of homelessness in Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F), the mainstream homelessness approaches and the housing options available for single people.

Michael Angus (Director, Barons Court Project) shared five case studies of people they currently working with who were experiencing lived hidden homelessness. He noted that all of them were not of UK origin who usually had high expectations in terms of accommodation and housing yet more resourceful than rough sleepers. Some of them had mental health issues resulting in the lack of trust. He also observed that none of them was young people as they might be sofa surfing in college and had meals during the day. About 25 Baron Court Project’s guests who were classified as hidden homelessness and this had put extra pressure on the Project as the number of rough sleepers continued to rise, from about 400 guests with 8,500 attendances in 2017/18 to 900 guests with 14,000 attendance in 2023/24. Michael highlighted that people experiencing homelessness tended to feel invisible and hide themselves for safety.

Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) said he would like to have a discussion to to see if the Homelessness team could extend help to the vulnerable communities of refugees, including the 5 cases.

As regards the Chair’s question about the quality of accommodation for single people with low income, Richard noted a lot had to be done together to help non-English speaking communities from asylum seeking background from understanding their issues and meeting their needs. He highlighted that a one-off grant of £65,000 was available this year to help single people at risk of homelessness and rough sleeping with direct financial support to go into private rented accommodation. They would work together to tackle rouge landlords to ensure accommodation quality from a regulatory point of view. Hopefully, this could help rebuild homeless people’s trust that the Council would do things with the residents and make a difference.

On the need to interrupt the journey of hidden homelessness and escalate it into an area under the Council’s statutory duty, Richard Shwe said the Housing Services teams were working together with co-production and public health to help these vulnerable adults, for example, providing wraparound care when they sought help from 145 King Street.

Clare Dorning highlighted the difficulty in maintaining non-statutory services like the wraparound care when the budgets were tight. Sometimes, the services had to become a floating support service or had to end. She undertook to discuss with Dr. Nicola Lang and partners to see if wraparound care could be continued. 

ACTION: Clare Dorning

Dr Nicola Lang (Director of Public Health) thanked Michael Angus for presenting the moving case studies believing that they had no recourse to public fund (NRPF).  She suggested:

• linking cases one and five to the thriving Iranian Association in the borough and case four to the Egyptian House.
• matching the religious needs of the NRPF clients via the Faith Forum.
• referring those in need to the rough sleeper mental health team called RAMP.
• strengthening ties with voluntary and community sector and H&F Law Centre to give support to NRPF cases. 
• helping the cases to find jobs.

ACTION: Dr Nicola Lang

Dr Lang added that more funding was put into the Homelessness Prevention team creating 1.5 posts to match the one-off grant.

On safe space in small hours available to hidden homelessness, Dr Lang noted the Accident and Emergency departments in hospitals were always a free warm place where tea and sandwich were provided.  A&E colleagues had also worked with Transport for London to keep stations open for people to stay warm. 

Councillor Adronie Alford was concerned about signposting the way forward for college students leaving sofa surfing, for example, receiving advice in respect of college education or family services.  Councillor Frances Umeh (Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness) thanked her helpful comments.  She noted it was necessary to avoid stigma or issues being flagged for these non-UK college students. Dr Lang said she would speak with Peter Haylock who was the Director of Education and representative from West London College.

ACTION: Dr Nicola Lang

Councillor Asif Siddique asked about the reporting mechanism for hidden homelessness such that the Council, having had more precise figures, might refer the cases to accommodations in other boroughs within or outside London.

Clare Dorning highlighted the advantage of mobility of private rented accommodation.  While the Homelessness team could not make referrals for hidden homelessness cases, it would offer advice and information about these accommodations in any part of the country particularly outside London as they were more affordable. Richard Shwe remarked that the Council would continue to share the good practice in dealing hidden homelessness with the central government with a view to getting more fundings on this matter.

On the mechanism of reporting and collating precise figures of hidden homelessness, Councillor Frances Umeh said it really relied on individuals’ willingness to speak about their situation without worrying stigmatisation. As such, working collaboration on various aspects of hidden homelessness could proceed only after useful data could be gathered and measured. At the moment, the policy was to improve standards of private rented accommodation like those under the Renters Reform Act.

Noting that young people might find higher-quality low-cost accommodation in London, the Chair asked if the Council could explore this under social housing remit by converting unused office space as temporary accommodation after changing their legal purpose.

Richard Shwe said while keeping residents safe in the Council’s current stock via compliance was its first and foremost duty being a regulatory service provider, the Housing Service would explore the option which would be a long-term fix having regard the need to address compliance and planning issues. 

As regards policy change that should be made to improve the situation of hidden homelessness, Michael Angus noted that the homeless clients were often very desperate and the system did not work citing a young homeless man who could not afford the rent even if he had got a job after obtaining a degree.  Moreover, the threshold for obtaining mental health and social care support kept on rising continuously. Michael said he did not have an answer of policy change but H&F was one of the best councils that he had worked with which would listen and take on board suggestions from the partners.

The Chair thanked the contributions of everyone attending.  She suggested brining back a future report on the use of the one-off grant and the outcomes of the few recommendations or areas after exploration. Clare Dorning noted that the use of the grant was ringfenced to prevent people at risk of homelessness by providing financial assistance within this financial year.

ACTION: Richard Shwe

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report.