Why Peterborough City Council is asking for £500k to build flats for homeless

Members of the council’s Health Scrutiny Committee have been given details of the bid and how it would be spent to help tackle the impact Covid-19 has had on the homeless population of Peterborough.
The concerns are how any benefits secured during the coronavirus epidemic will be maintained, especially with the onset of the winter months.

Addressing the matter at their online meeting this week, Val Thomas, Consultant in Public Health said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has brought new, and exacerbated many of, the existing challenges for the homeless or those in poor accommodation as they have a higher risk of transmission and if they acquire the infection this is associated with poorer outcomes.

“At the start of the pandemic the Government introduced a number of mandatory emergency measures aimed to reduce the risks to the homelessness population, and as part of the emergency measures the Government required every housing authority to arrange emergency accommodation for all homeless people, especially those on the street, to be provided 24-hour safe accommodation.

“This was to be done preferably in self-contained accommodation and with facilities to isolate wherever possible, and with suitable support including advice on Covid-19, as well as access to health services including prescriptions, meals and security.

“Emergency Covid-19 accommodation was secured in partnership with hotels, hostels and other private accommodation providers, with risk assessment for each unit.

“In Peterborough there was a very quick, system-wide response to the homelessness situation through the Covid-19 response structures, with 80 of those sleeping rough housed within the first week, and at the peak of that period in mid-April we had housed 140 homeless persons.

“Public Health was identified as having a lead role in ensuring that the homeless were protected from the pandemic.

“The Socially Vulnerable Groups Cell (initially known as Socially Excluded) was set up and led by Public Health, reporting to the Community Reference Group, which in turn reports to Local Resilience Forum and it includes leads for a number of vulnerable groups including the homeless.

“This Cell is now one of the five complex settings Cells found in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Outbreak Control Plan.

“It addresses the prevention of Covid-19 infection amongst socially vulnerable groups which includes their other wider health needs and provides reports to the Vulnerable People’s Recovery Sub-Group.

“The Cell is still led by Public Health; it regularly provides updates to the Sub-Regional Housing Board or Housing Cell and highlights any particular issues to secure partner support for resolving them.”

Jan Thomas, Accountable Officer, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, continued: “As part of sustaining improvements in services for the homeless the Government launched the ‘Next Steps’ Fund in August 2020, and bids have been submitted for both capital and revenue funding from across our area.

“The Next Steps fund is to provide an immediate response to the crisis but also to create a national asset of more lasting value, to try to prevent homelessness growing when the recovery phase starts to kick in.

“This might be through creating more homes or providing long term support programmes to tackle the needs which have become apparent through provision of the Covid-19 emergency accommodation.”

Marek Zamborsky, Senior Responsible Officer/Assistant Director, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, added: “The peak number of homeless people in Covid-19 accommodation in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was 333 on May 140.

“The latest recorded total is 198, at August 27. Some individuals will have moved out of the emergency accommodation and have been found alternative places to live. Others will have newly moved in.

“Exact numbers of rough sleepers are difficult to determine, and will change all the time as people move in and out of rough sleeping and move in and out of the Peterborough area, however we estimate that there are around 120 rough sleepers in Peterborough at present.

“This estimate is based on the highest number of people accommodated by Peterborough City Council at the height of the efforts to get all rough sleepers off the streets during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Val Thomas added: “For Peterborough, this means that we will be needing: 60 one bed flats to be purchased and/or repaired by the end of March 2020; the procurement of two properties to create two Covid-19 secure five-bed HMOs with self-contained facilities; and a revenue funding bid to support the two new HMOs plus four floating support officers to support the 60 one-bed flats; all of which will cost some £426,791.00.”

Cllr June Bull asked: “Have any former guests of the Peterborough Light Project, who have done so much to help homeless persons in our city, been asked to take part in this new initiative because if not it would be worthwhile contacting Steven Pettican, Chief Executive of the project to see what he and his organisation can add?”

Jan Thomas said: “We have been in touch with a large number of organisations who have taken part in helping with the homeless persons throughout the pandemic period. Dr Gary Howsam and I have spoken with the Peterborough Light Project as the commissioning team are trying to create bespoke services and we know how much information they have for this area.”

Marek Zamborsky added: “As a health care provider, if you’re not in the right place at the right time to offer your services then the homeless who have multi-faceted needs such as substance abuse, mental health, housing needs, will suffer as a result.

“What we’ve discovered is that our health provision must be very flexible as a consequence to follow the lifestyle of these persons or they will reject or even miss out completely on the help that can be given to them.

“From a wider perspective, we’re learning a great deal by sharing support information with other authorities; for example, in terms of East of England mental health.

“In Luton there are huge numbers of homeless persons, many with mental health issues; numbers that are far greater than we have here. So, everything that can be learned from their experiences will go to help us tailor support services to our homeless population.”

The outcome of the submitted bid of £426,791.00 is expected to be announced in late-November 2020.