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Approval is required by the Director for
Housing and Communities in accordance with the above delegated
authority to enter into a 2-year lease to secure 6 units of
temporary accommodation within a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO)
at Cecil Rd, Lancing for people owed a housing duty by WBC or ADC
in accordance S188 and S193 of the Housing Act 1996. The Councils
have been using this property as temporary accommodation on an
adhoc basis since March 2023 and it is
currently fully occupied.
 
The lease value and name of the proprietor is
being withheld as commercially sensitive information as releasing
this into the public domain could lead to landlords communicating
with each other and impact our ability to negotiate charges
associated with securing accommodation for our use as temporary
accommodation and therefore compromise facilitating fair,
commercial competition.

Reasons for the decision

To meet the Council’s obligations to
accommodate households owed a statutory housing duty S188 and S193
of the Housing Act 1996.
 
A recent snapshot has shown that 73% of single
people for WBC and 93% of ADC temporary accommodation placements
are made out of the area due to a lack of available accommodation
in Adur and Worthing, demonstrating an
urgent need for the councils to acquire and retain local temporary
accommodation to enable people to maintain their support networks,
employment, education and social networks.
 
This decision forms part of the ongoing
programme to acquire and retain properties using cheaper long-term
contracts to reduce expenditure on temporary accommodation, meet
housing needs, and provide and maintain an adequate supply of
temporary accommodation.

Alternative options considered

Both ADC and WBC have commenced capital works
programmes to purchase and develop their own temporary
accommodation stock. So far three buildings have been developed to
create 38 self-contained flats in Worthing and one building in
Adur consisting of 6 self-contained
flats. Whilst this is an effective long term strategy to lower the
cost of temporary accommodation, it can take many months or years
to develop each site and therefore this in isolation is not
sufficient to keep up with current demand.
 
We are also continuing to operate our UKHA
award winning ‘Opening Doors’ letting service which
provides a supply of private rented accommodation to prevent and
relieve homelessness and assist with moving people on from
temporary accommodation.  Since its
introduction in July 2019, we have achieved over 100 lets with an
additional 67 properties in the pipeline expected to be occupied by
the end of Q2 2024. However, due to high numbers of people
presenting as homeless, this is not sufficient to keep up with
current demand and therefore a supply of cost-effective temporary
accommodation is required to meet the immediate housing needs for
the homeless.
 
As well as working to increase and improve our
local temporary accommodation supply, we are also working on other
initiatives to meet this need, including with RSL and support
providers for supported move on accommodation and provision of
support accommodation for those with complex needs.
 
Doing nothing and continuing to use increasing
amounts of nightly booked spot purchased rooms, flats and B&B
accommodation will see costs spiral and is therefore not
recommended.