City councilors are urging the government for increased support following an autumn statement, which they say offered no relief for current financial pressures and left future funding uncertain.
The full council will address the issue next Tuesday; according to Portsmouth’s local government, the number of households in temporary accommodation has surged by 54% over the past year, exceeding 500, while the costs have risen by 84%. This has resulted in an unexpected budget gap for 2024 of £5.6m.
Temporary accommodation is provided to homeless people in the city who have a link to Portsmouth and who the council has a statutory duty to house. These may be people who have been evicted by family, have had a private tenancy come to an end, or are experiencing domestic abuse, and meet qualifying criteria. It is different to asylum seeker accommodation, which is provided by the government and not included in these costs.
The rise in demand for temporary accommodation and the costs associated with it have been mitigated by the following steps the council has already taken to address the issue:
- Implementing a new homelessness strategy to reduce instances of homelessness
- Revising the housing allocations policy to allocate housing more intelligently and house more people per year
- Helping people who are threatened with homelessness earlier, preventing homelessness more often, meaning fewer people require temporary accommodation.
- Delivered 1268 affordable homes with our partners over the past 10 years, and continuing to bring new sites forward
- Increasing the provision of supported temporary accommodation, providing a more cost-effective and supported option for people who are homeless
- Buying additional properties and putting together a plan to buy more
- Pursuing opportunities to increase the amount of more affordable temporary accommodation available to the council to increase supply and reduce costs
- Lobbying the government for improved funding for homelessness and rough sleeping areas
- Increasing the number of private rental homes the council helps people to access as a way of resolving their homelessness
Cllr Darren Sanders, Cabinet Member for Housing and Tackling Homelessness, said: “Everyone has the right to a safe and secure home, and council staff work tirelessly to achieve that for the people of Portsmouth. This is a national crisis, although we welcome the increase in government funding from next April, this does not help us now to deliver a long-term plan; we want the government to work with us to help plug the gap. We have already taken a range of measures to ensure people have a safe and secure home and it is our mission to ensure this continues.”
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