Thousands at risk of becoming homeless
THOUSANDS of people in Cardiff are asking for help as they’re threatened with homelessness, new figures have revealed.
Cardiff council received 3,987 applications for help with homelessness in 2017-18 – an increase of 68% from just two years ago.
During those 12 months, 1,976 households were identified as homeless – with breakdown of support from family or friends and lack of secure accommodation available the main reasons why.
There were also 1,544 households in Cardiff identified as threatened with homelessness in 2017-18 – with the main reasons being lack of accommodation available, mortgage or rent arrears and parents, relatives or friends no longer willing to help.
Cardiff council, which is reviewing the homeless situation and will report back later this year, is concerned that welfare reform and private landlords leaving the property market are making the problem even worse.
Jane Thomas, the council’s assistant director of housing and communities, said some people have been evicted 30 times from hostels.
She told the council’s Community and Adult Services Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday that a way must be found to get these people to engage with drug and alcohol misuse programmes.
Mrs Thomas said: “For some reason this provision is failing a cohort of people who are going into the hostels and coming out again because they are not getting the support.”
In the past 12 months the average number of people sleeping rough on Cardiff’s streets was between 60 and 78, figures shown to the committee said. As many as half of those had substance misuse issues.
But the council is concerned that up to 35% of these rough sleepers have no local connection to Cardiff. And the council says a large number of people seeking help for homelessness were previously housed by National Asylum Support Services.
Mrs Thomas added that every homeless person or rough sleeper in Cardiff not from the city will be offered help to reconnect with their local area.
The authority also plans to increase the capacity of The Wallich night shelter by November and could assign support workers to hard-to-reach rough sleepers to ensure they get the right support.
Sarah McGill, the council’s director of people and communities, said some people don’t want help.
She said: “There’s very little the services can do other than to keep trying and offering support.”
The report, due to be published in December, will look to understand rough sleeping and look to end it.
There are also plans to increase emergency provision by opening another 13 portable units, known as pods, in homeless centres The Huggard and Ty Tresilian by the late summer.
The council’s homeless outreach team, which has recently taken on seven more staff, helped 124 people affected by homelessness in 2017-18.
That includes 34 people reconnected with friends and family, 42 reconnected with council services, 19 into private accommodation and 29 into supported housing.
The Wallich was contacted by people affected by homelessness more than 2,000 times in 2017-18, with 493 people supported.
The Compass Project supported 15 people with substance misuse, while the Ty Terian project for sex workers helped five women.