Number of homeless people in Powys soars

Powys County Council’s economy, residents and communities scrutiny committee held a discussion about the council’s performance report for the second quarter of 2021/22.

The data showed that the number of of homeless cases that the council is dealing with rose by 82 in the second quarter of the financial year which began in July.

That includes the number of households living in temporary and bed and breakfast accommodation.

There were 401 cases of homelessness, including 11 rough sleepers – more than double the number from the first quarter – while most of those classed as homeless were in temporary accommodation.

Committee chairman Cllr Mathew Dorrance said: “For the second quarter in a row it’s been an incredibly poor performance.

“It does indicate that the options to rehouse are limited due to the constriction of the private rented sector and the high demand for one bedroom accommodation which is not available.

“But that’s not solely come around because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We should have been able to forecast that in our housing needs assessment and plans for some time.

“I accept that responding to that demand it takes time to build houses and bring accommodation on stream, but none the less we have a responsibility to provide housing.”

Matthew Dorrance

The council’s director of economy and environment, Nigel Brinn said: “It’s not a new issue but it has certainly been heightened and exacerbated due to Covid.”

He added that he would come back to the committee with a more detailed answer.

The performance report for quarter two 2021/22 was noted and approved by the cabinet at the meeting on November 23.

The report had revealed that the overall performance of the council had dropped from quarter one to two with only 33 per cent of the public accountability measures on target, down from 42 per cent.

But the council had been working in emergency  mode and re-started it’s business continuity plan  – concentrating on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic – for a large part of quarter two.

The report shows that there were:

• 401 live homeless cases – up from 319.
• The number of households in temporary accommodation was 189 – up from 174.
• The  number of households in Bed and Breakfast’s (B&B) was 23 – up from 21.
• The number of known rough sleepers was 11 – up from 4.
• The council successfully housed 45 homeless households down from  54 in quarter one.