I'll be watching you, new homelessness czar tells councils

The new head of the homelessness directorate at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is to review local homelessness strategies on completion in July to ensure councils are doing everything they can to fight homelessness.

Speaking in public for the first time after her appointment last month, Terrie Alafat also countered criticism voiced at the annual housing conference in Harrogate that she was being undermined by policy coming out of other government departments.

Alafat said councils would be subjected to close scrutiny, saying she wanted to be able to see exactly what had been achieved by councils so far.

“If some haven’t been so efficient we need to know, because we’re asking them to change quite rapidly, and we’re looking to up performance across the board.”

She added that she would focus on homelessness prevention, and lowering the rate of repeat homelessness.

If some councils haven’t been so efficient we need to know, because we’re asking them to change quite rapidly

 

Terrie Alafat

Her comments came the same week as government statistics revealing that the number of homeless people has risen by nearly 11,500 in the year since the Homelessness Act was introduced in July 2002.

Alafat made the comments after sharing a platform with Adam Sampson, director of charity Shelter, in which he said the good work of the homelessness directorate was being undermined by other government policies.

After welcoming Alafat’s appointment, Sampson said: “A lot of the directorate’s work is being undercut by other policies, particularly those on antisocial behaviour. We understand antisocial behaviour is a problem, but a response that merely appears to highlight the punitive aspects of dealing with it will cause homelessness figures to increase.”

He said he was particularly concerned by plans to dock housing benefit from problem tenants.