Agenda item

RESOLVED: That the Committee note the report.

5.1      John Barker, (Housing Options and Advice Manager (Singles)) presented the report to the Committee. The key points to note were:

·         SHIP is the single point of access for single homeless people within the borough of Lewisham. The team was originally created in 2008 in response to the increasing numbers of single homeless with support needs within the borough to coordinate access into the borough’s extensive range of supported housing options funded through the supporting people programme.

·         The work is split into three areas which broadly reflect the categories of single homeless clients that the team most commonly works with:

o   Young Persons

o   Generic Vulnerable Adults

o   Offenders

·         The generic roles being further split into areas such as Rough Sleepers, Substance Use, Elderly and Vulnerable and Mental Health.

·         Access to the service is primarily by one of two routes. Customers can drop in during opening times, for assistance and advice, and many of SHIP’s first contacts with clients are made in this way. The second route is by way of referral from other statutory and voluntary agencies. The types of agency or organisation that SHIP commonly takes referrals from are:

o   London Street Rescue Outreach Service

o   Community Mental Health Teams

o   Lewisham Hospital

o   Community Drug and Alcohol Team

o   Community Advice and Assistance Agencies (Deptford Reach; The 999 Club; Bench Outreach etc)

o   Probation Services

o   HM Prison Service

o   No Second Night Out

·         SHIP will only work with people who are eligible, homeless and have a local connection as set out by the Housing Act 1996. However, one important difference is that for the majority of our clients they do not necessarily take into account Priority Need or Intentionality of Homelessness.

5.2       In response to questions from the Committee, the following was noted:

·         Officers will do a number of reasonable checks to ensure the homeless person has a ‘local connection’ to be eligible for accommodation.

·         Mental Health patients can access SHIP through the Care Programme Approach through Mental Health Services. There are a huge range of mental health services in the borough, such as Equinox or Penrose that can also help.

·         Officers will monitor the impact of the Government’s welfare reform proposals on the under-25s who will have a number of benefits taken away, and how they affect housing in the borough; and whether the Government will continue to fund discretionary budgets in a number of schemes.

·         The Emergency Lodgings Accommodation Network (ELAN) is a short-term lodgings service providing accommodation for a maximum of 28 days to young people aged 16-21 providing a cooling-off period for them and their families, often following a crisis and having left the family home unplanned. The service run by CAYSH and commissioned by the South East London Housing Partnership (SELHP) – a consortium of five London Boroughs of (Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark). The funding for the scheme is scheduled to end soon, and the local authorities involved are looking at alternative funding arrangements to keep the service going.

·         Officers will supply Committee Members with the report on Rough Sleepers from the GLA, with the statistics in full.

·         The Council works closely with No Second Night Out in identifying appropriate accommodation options for their Lewisham Connected Customers and in assessing their suitability for supported housing and other options.

·         The Council has a pathway system for young adults to manage their transition from the care system to adulthood. For example, they are given priority for housing in the borough.

·         There is a problem of No Recourse to Public Funds rough sleepers in some London boroughs, but this has not been a major issue in Lewisham. The pan-London protocol for rough sleeping outreach services looks to address this, amongst other things.

5.3      RESOLVED: That the Committee note the report.