ODPM pilots project to help te

The government is to pilot a scheme to enable people in temporary accommodation to escape the poverty trap.

The project is part of the measures to address homelessness in the ODPM’s five-year plan announced on Monday.

Housing Today can reveal that the pilot project, developed by housing association East Thames Group, the Greater London Authority, the ODPM and the Department for Work and Pensions, will be tested in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Newham and could begin this summer.

Rents in temporary accommodation are relatively high and many tenants cannot afford to get off housing benefit and go to work because their wages would not cover the rent – a situation known as the poverty trap. Under the scheme tenants would be given money to cover the gap between rent and income.

In its five-year plan, the government also pledges to halve the number of households in temporary accommodation, which stands at a record high of 100,000.

A spokeswoman said the reduction of 10,000 households a year for five years would be met by making temporary tenancies more secure and putting extra funding into prevention of homelessness. She added that the government would review the way it collects homelessness statistics.

She said: “There will be additional funding [for homelessness prevention].

There will be £60m in 2005/6 for local authorities and voluntary organisations and this will rise to £74m in 2007/8. It’s spending review money but we have not announced yet how it will be allocated.

“We are looking at increasing the number of secure tenancies and converting insecure tenancies into secure ones.”

In December the government said it was looking at schemes, such as Newham council’s Local Space project, which turn temporary accommodation into permanent homes (HT 17 December, page 11).

Homelessness organisations gave a cautious welcome to the announcements. However, they stressed that local authorities must not turn homeless families away in order to reduce numbers in temporary accommodation.

Sue Regan, policy director of homelessness charity Shelter, said: “We support stopping people from becoming homeless but our concern is there could be pressure [on local authorities] to accept fewer people as homeless.”

She said the funding increase was unlikely to cover the amount of extra preventive work needed to halve the number of families in temporary accommodation.

Regan also queried deputy prime minister John Prescott’s frequently stated view that 80% of households in temporary accommodation are in good quality homes. The government is keen to distinguish between those in bed-and-breakfast and those in self-contained accommodation.