Housing boss: 'Financial crisis will force the vulnerable from their homes'

Havering’s housing director said the local authority faced rising homelessness, soaring rents and budget cuts.

It is increasingly relying on B&Bs as it struggles to find properties, and this comes amid proposals to cut Havering’s homeless prevention grant.

The dire situation was outlined to the Recorder this week by housing director Patrick Odling-Smee and Paul McGreary, Labour cabinet member for housing.

Rising homelessness

Demand for help with homelessness in Havering is currently 59 per cent higher than three years ago.

Havering expects it to keep rising, thanks to the cost-of-living crisis.

“Clearly, things are getting a lot worse,” said Cllr McGeary. “People are really struggling to manage at the moment.

"We will have more challenging problems with more people becoming homeless and needing support.”

Soaring rents

At the same time, rising bills are driving lots of landlords to pull out of the market altogether, said Patrick, and those remaining are upping their rents.

“Landlords are just recovering their costs,” he said. “Their interest rates are going up, the regulation’s going up, their taxes are going up.”

The problem for the council, he said, is government rent caps – called Local Housing Allowances (LHAs).

This week, the Romford Recorder reported on 'Teresa', a former NHS worker, now deemed unable to work for health reasons. She received a Section 21 'no fault' eviction notice in June (Image: Archant)

LHAs

An LHA is the maximum rent which can be funded through benefits in any borough - for example, for those unable to work due to disability.

Havering rents now outstrip its LHA.

Havering’s LHA is £1,375 per month, but the average rent for a three-bed house is now between £1,500 and £1,600.

“Basically, people can’t afford to rent in the private sector anymore, which creates real challenges,” said Patrick.

So as more and more landlords use Section 21 “no fault” evictions to reclaim and sell their properties, Havering finds itself trying to rehouse an increasing number of households into a decreasing number of properties.

B&Bs

“Because we can’t find the supply, and the demand is going up, we are having to use bed and breakfast accommodation,” said Patrick.

The council has always used it to temporarily accommodate a small number of single people, he said.

“But over the summer, since June, July time, the number has really massively increased."

That, he added, is “very expensive” - but the council has no choice, even if it pushes Havering into a budget crisis.

“We have an absolute duty to accommodate,” said Patrick. “A statutory duty.”

Last month, the Romford Recorder was present when single mother Kirsty, a cleaner who can only work while her young children are at school, was evicted following a Section 21 notice. She and her three kids were placed in a hotel room (Image: Archant)

Priced out

But, he said, B&Bs are “completely inappropriate” - particularly for families, who could stay there for more than six weeks.

Ultimately, they must be rehoused.

Havering currently accommodates 95 per cent of homeless households back into the borough.

The furthest it has moved anybody is Thurrock, said Patrick.

But that cannot continue.

“Previously, accommodation in Havering has been relatively affordable,” he said. “That’s changing... So we are looking further afield at the minute.”

This is “complicated”, he added, because where rents are cheaper, LHAs are also lower – so even less expensive areas will pose the same problems.

Cuts

“The pressure staff are under is tremendous,” said Patrick.

They are already working evenings and nights – and they could become even more stretched.

Just as Havering faces this crisis, government has indicated that the borough's homeless prevention grant faces a cut of up to 26 per cent – which would be a real-terms cut of even more.

This would force job cuts, said Patrick, leaving fewer staff battling the mushrooming homelessness problem.

"If the funding isn’t provided by government, the books just don’t balance at the end of the day,” said Cllr McGeary.

Paul McGeary, Labour cabinet member for housing (Image: Archant)

Substantial cuts since 2010 have already meant “a lot of the non-statutory services have had to go and we’re now sort of cutting into the bone,” he said.

Havering is lobbying government, but in the meantime it will launch a public consultation over its next budget.

“There will be options there as to where we can save and where maybe there’s options for additional charges,” said Cllr McGeary.

“Our intention is that we will balance the books this year and we will go forward from there.”

The Recorder asked government last week about its cut to homelessness funding amid a cost-of-living crisis. It did not respond.