Technical Notes 2022, Issue 51 - Rapid Rehousing Funding Years 4 & 5

1. The purpose of this technical note is to provide Members with an update in relation to funding received from the Scottish Government for the Council’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan RRTP for 2022/23 and 2023/24.

2.1       The Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) was set up by the Scottish Government in October 2017 to produce short and long-term solutions to end homelessness and rough sleeping. Four sets of recommendations emerged during the period late 2017 to June 2018, totalling 70 detailed recommendations.  The resultant vision is of a whole-system approach, whereby prevention of homelessness is paramount and the responsibility lies not just with local authorities but with all parts of the public sector.

2.2       The five-year Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan sets out how national and local government, with third sector partners, are working to prevent homelessness and address people’s needs quickly when homelessness does happen. It is backed by a £50 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund to support change on the ground so that people get the right help at the right time, and is underpinned by the views of people with lived experience of homelessness who would like services to respond urgently and flexibly to people’s individual housing and support needs.

2.3       The Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) is the planning framework for local authorities and their partners to transition to a rapid rehousing approach. Each Local Authority was required to develop their plan by 31 December 2018 in collaboration, over a planned and costed phase of 5 years (2019/20 to 2023/24). RRTPs will then be an integral part of the Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) and reviewed annually as part of the SHIP process. RRTPs will sit within the Community Planning Partners wider strategic planning framework along with the Local Housing Strategy.  The ‘Ending Homeless Together’ fund only provides costs related to transformational activities. Capital costs will not be considered under this fun

2.4       The RRTP is designed to be a working tool which:

• sets out the local housing market and homelessness context in East Dunbartonshire;
• provides the baseline position of temporary accommodation supply;
• sets out the Council’s and partners 5-year vision for temporary accommodation supply;
• identifies support needs to enable rapid rehousing;
• details the actions required to achieve our vision for temporary accommodation supply and settled housing options for homeless households; and
• provides a rapid rehousing resource plan required to deliver the plan and evidence the co-ownership and resourcing of the RRTP with wider partners, particularly the HSCP and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs);
• uses the analysis undertaken for sections 1-4 of the statistical return, the plan then sets out how the Council and partners are going to move from the current position, to the future vision of rapid rehousing. 

1.  The action plan identifies 7 high level actions with sub actions detailed against each. A summary is provided below:
2. Increase focus on prevention to stop homelessness occurring in the first place
3. A settled, mainstream housing outcome provided as quickly as possible for homeless applicants
4. Time spent in any form of temporary accommodation reduced to a minimum, with the fewer transitions the better
5. When temporary accommodation is needed, the optimum type is furnished mainstream located within a community
6. Ensure homeless households can access existing housing
7. Ensure homeless households can access the right type of support
8. Increase affordable housing supply to meet the needs of homeless households

2.6       As outlined in the Council’s Action Plan in 2018/19, the total revenue resources requested amounted to £2.174m (of which £1.363m is staff resource related). In addition, it was calculated that £127m of capital funding would be needed and an estimated £400k of revenue to deliver new build and supported accommodation provision to fully implement the Scottish Governments RRTP vision.

2.7      To date the Council has received £404k of funding.

2.8      As reported in previous years, funding given by the Scottish Government has not been action specific; it has been based on homelessness numbers in each area.   As a result, the funding given has been significantly lower than requested at the start of the RRTP.  The Council has prioritised spend to ensure that key areas of the plan are met, where funding hasn’t been given these have been met through existing resources/budgets and partnership agreements with key services/agencies.

3.  RRTP summary of received funding & proposed spend 2022/23 and 2023/24

            3.1  On the 20 December 2021 the Council received confirmation of 2022/23 and 2023/24 funding (£78k per annum).   A copy of the letter is available in Appendix 1.

            3.2  The table below provides a summary of 2022/23 and 2023/24 proposed spend

3.3  A further update on RRTP activities/achievements will be provided later in 2022/23.