Richmond council trumpets 50% drop in homelessness

The west London authority has recorded a drop in the number of people accepted as homeless from 633 in 1998/9 to 316 in 2003/4. It attributes the cut to “improved efficiency of staff and management systems”.

Brian Castle, Richmond’s assistant director of housing, said the council’s larger resettlement team had helped more homeless people to keep tenancies once they had been housed.

He added: “Most of it is down to good prevention work and better IT and management information. Better staff morale, lower staff turnover and less use of temporary staff has also helped. This means we deal with cases a lot quicker.”

However James Mumford, Liberal Democrat housing spokesman at the council, said: “The authority is still way behind in meeting its targets on affordable housing. Overall levels of housing need are still very high.

“I have also seen an increase in my caseload of people saying they have been removed from the housing list because they have refused a single offer of housing because it is unsuitable and because they have been told they have made themselves intentionally homeless.”

Castle admitted there had been a small increase in the number of people classed as intentionally homeless – and therefore removed from the homelessness figures. But he insisted this accounted for a tiny proportion of the 50% drop.

Homelessness charity Shelter said that there were still too many families in temporary housing in Richmond. It said by the end of the third quarter of 2004, 510 families were in temporary accommodation in the borough.

The council used figures for the number of households accepted as homeless in 2003/4 rather than the total in temporary accommodation.

Shelter director Adam Sampson said: “On the face of it the council appears to be running an efficient housing service which cuts local costs but more importantly improves the lives of the some of the most needy people in the borough. But living in temporary accommodation often means having to move home regularly sometimes away from established links with schools and GPs and this damages children’s education, health and future prospects.”