Services for the homeless improve

8:19pm Thursday 28th February 2008

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SERVICES for homeless people and housing advice in West Dorset have 'dramatically improved' after the district council took on the job to address 'weaknesses' in the sector.

A report prepared for West Dorset District Council's executive committee reflects significant progress since the services for the homeless and those threatened with losing their homes was taken over by the authority in November 2006.

The service was brought 'in house' after an eight-point plan was drawn up.

One of the key areas of concern was the use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families in need of a temporary residence, which was not only proving expensive but is also not considered appropriate for families.

The report, by the community protection manager, states: "The decision to bring the service back in house was supported with additional resources aimed at securing an improved service seeking to provide advice and assistance to a wider range of clients and preventing homelessness whenever possible."

The council also appointed additional staff to assist with the transition and introduced new housing software.

The report's analysis of the first year of the services being under council control shows improvements in nearly all areas.

One area of success was the vast reduction of households placed in bed and breakfast accommodation, with the average number of households needing to stay in B&Bs reduced from an average of 18.5 a month in November 2005 to 5.5 at the same stage two years later.

There also were no families staying in B&Bs for more than six weeks by last November, compared to 13 in 2005.

The report states: "It is now a realistic target for the service to report 'no households in B&B' at the end of each month."

It adds that, as well as homelessness prevention work, a key factor for this reduced figure is the councils availability of dedicated temporary accommodation in Dorchester at Exhibition Court, High East Street and Rectory Court.

The report concludes: "The council's homelessness and housing advice service has periodically been the subject of concern, with internal scrutiny and external inspection processes identifying weaknesses.

"As a consequence, the council resolved to bring the contracted service back in house in November 2006. The additional resources that were allocated to the service, together with increased emphasis on the prevention of homelessness, has led to a dramatic improvement in performance."