Introduction
This Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy sets out how Dartford Borough Council will prioritise the prevention of homelessness and ending of rough sleeping in the borough, covering the period 2024 to 2029.
Whilst we are all recovering from the pandemic, we are now at the centre of a national cost of living crisis. Consequently, it has been a difficult few years for everyone, and we do not underestimate the significant impact these challenging times have on people’s resilience or how it can increase their vulnerability to homelessness.
We know that homelessness can be a result of individual life events or traumatic incidents; and appreciate that becoming homeless, or the fear of this, is one of the most damaging experiences a person can have. As well as preventing homelessness and securing accommodation; providing support is an essential element of what we, and our partner organisations, do to help improve quality of life and avoid the recurrence of homelessness.
We are building on the good work we have done to date in tackling homelessness. This is our sixth strategy. In our last strategy we focused on preparing for the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which increased our duties around prevention with an expanded duty to refer, the introduction of personalised housing plans and greater expectations on providing assistance and support to a larger group of people. This was all against a backdrop of welfare reforms and a national shortage of affordable housing, which continue to be relevant and ongoing factors impacting on homelessness today.
As there is still more work to do, this strategy is our commitment to further our existing approach to preventing and relieving homelessness, and to focus our efforts on identifying new and innovative ways to respond to the challenges we are likely to face over the coming years.
Becoming homeless and needing to access emergency accommodation could be the worst day of an individual’s life. With that at the core of our focus, when dealing with people experiencing homelessness, we will take a trauma informed approach to resolving a person’s situation and helping them rebuild their lives.
The strategy also recognises that homelessness and rough sleeping cannot be tackled by the Council alone. The success of delivering our priorities relies on strong and effective partnership working with other organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors. This is essentially the ‘golden thread’ that runs throughout the strategy.
Our strategic priorities for this strategy are:
- Early intervention and prevention
- Accommodation
- Support
- Rough sleeping
- Trauma informed approach