County’s homeless total

THE number of homeless people in Neath Port Talbot has almost tripled over the past year.

New figures from the local authority show the county had 203 homeless people in 2017-18 compared to 71 the previous year.

The huge increase is being put down to a combination of factors.

According to a senior housing officer at Neath Port Talbot Council, registered social landlords such as housing associations are becoming tougher on who they accept and the private rented sector is shrinking due to the introduction of Universal Credit.

On top of this, the people who need housing have more issues than ever before.

Housing options manager Emma O’Brien said: “The complexity of cases is increasing. We are seeing more and more substance misuse and mental health issues, and people are losing their tenancies because of that.”

At a council meeting earlier this month, Ms O’Brien said the combination of factors meant it was becoming far more of a struggle to find housing for some people.

She said: “When we refer to registered social landlords they do an assessment and they’re looking at the reason for homelessness, which might be rent arrears, anti-social behaviour or previous convictions, much more thoroughly. A lot of our clients have all of those.

“If accommodation cannot be found at registered social landlords then we go to the private sector but we are up against it there as well.

“Growing numbers of tenants are receiving eviction notices when they are transferred onto Universal Credit because private landlords don’t want to wait weeks for the first benefit payments to come through. Some landlords locally are selling properties to get rid of them because of the impact of Universal Credit.”

The council says private landlords are