The strategy will run from 2025 to 2030 and sets out our vision and priorities for a partnership approach to tackling homelessness across Cumberland. 

We want to deliver meaningful and lasting change. Our draft vision for the strategy is ending homelessness together by driving quality outcomes, prevention and empowerment to support sustainable housing solutions.

Why we need a strategy

The Housing Act 1996 (Homelessness Act 2002) requires local authorities to carry out a detailed review of homelessness in their area and then create and publish a Homelessness Strategy based on the findings. The aims for these are:

• identifying action that can be taken to prevent homelessness
• providing suitable services and accommodation for people who are, or may become homeless
• supporting people who are homeless or potentially homeless, and those who were formally homeless and need support, to prevent them from becoming homeless again
• identifying the resources available and required to achieve the above

The law highlights the importance of different agencies working together. It requires local housing authorities, adult social care, and children's services to cooperate. It also encourages them to consult and collaborate with other public bodies like health authorities, the police, private landlords, and voluntary organisations when reviewing and creating the strategy.

We will work together with a range of partners to develop opportunities and services which aims to prevent homelessness, empower our residents and supports sustainable housing. 

Prevention of homelessness and supporting people to remain in their own homes and communities wherever possible is key. For single people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, we will take a ‘Housing First’ approach, focusing on rapid rehousing and then helping to provide longer term support. Where an individual or family need help to establish and maintain their tenancy, wherever possible we will support them to do so within the community they are in.

We will continue to work hard to prevent rough sleeping, repeat homelessness and tackle domestic abuse through a comprehensive support and accommodation offer. 

The increase in supply of a range of suitable and affordable homes, both temporary and long term, will help to support longer term sustainable housing in the local area. 

We aim to reduce the number of children in unsuitable and unstable housing and at risk of homelessness. Not only is this better for children immediately but there are longer-term benefits across education, skills, and health and wellbeing through building resilience and stable communities. 

We aim to prioritise meeting the specific housing needs of young people, particularly those with care experience and people identified with additional vulnerabilities and complex needs, through creating new specialist rehousing and supported pathways.

The five proposed priorities to achieve our aims

1: Prioritise early intervention and prevention of homelessness

We will continue to prioritise the prevention all forms of homelessness, rough sleeping and multiple exclusion. 

We will provide clear and accessible information and advice about where and how to resolve homelessness. 

We will share information and work with partners better.

We will support existing accommodation arrangements where safe and suitable to do so.

We propose to:

• commit to working more effectively with partners to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping by creating a Cumberland Charter
• offer more easily accessible advice and targeted interventions to prevent homelessness
• promote early intervention and ensure people are referred to the right team at the right time
• increase the criminal justice rehousing pathway options and multi-agency prevention responses, including access to immediate health support
• review and implement all pre-eviction protocols and work with landlords to create effective early alert systems

2: Work to end rough sleeping and multiple exclusion 

We will follow the recent national recommendations to better protect people who are homeless. We will prioritise the councils target priority group (TPG).

We will increase our targeted ‘off the street’ rehousing pathways for people identified as rough sleeping.

We will prioritise a ‘housing first’ multi-agency approach to address the causes of repeat homelessness, rough sleeping and multiple exclusion with enhanced governance arrangements through the Cumbria Safeguarding Adults Board (CSAB) and Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) Partnerships.

We propose to:

• reduce the numbers of people effected by repeat homelessness and end rough sleeping
• implement Housing First multi-disciplinary case conferencing panel approach, linked to MEAM and CSAB
• increase specialist longer term Housing First and ‘move on’ accommodation and support options
• improve access to a range of key services to meet wider health and treatment needs – particularly mental health and substance and alcohol dependency needs
• raise awareness of key issues and reduce misconceptions of homelessness through campaigns and communication including positive giving schemes as alternatives to begging

3: Develop and improve access to a suitable range of settled, supported and temporary accommodation solutions

We will make best use of accommodation available that meets the needs of our residents, supports their health and wellbeing, and continue to influence improved standards across all tenures and available accommodation.

We will increase the availability of a range of affordable settled, specialist supported and temporary accommodation rehousing pathways to meet the needs of those most at risk of homelessness. 

We propose to:

• reduce the use of unsuitable Bed and Breakfast accommodation by providing better emergency and temporary housing options
• find long lasting housing-led solutions for everyone, focusing on developing affordable and quick re-housing pathways
• engage private landlords to encourage more to let properties to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness
• support the development and delivery of new 16/17 joint housing protocol and care experienced pathways. Increase good quality rehousing and support options, timely joint move on planning, and opportunities for all young people and single households aged under 35 years
• develop opportunities to increase the supply of good quality, genuinely affordable housing, both temporary and permanent, including new homes, and flexible tenancy sustainment support for those moving and settling into new homes

4: Deliver an efficient, effective and accessible homeless prevention and housing support service tailored to meet diverse needs

We will deliver a trauma-informed, effective specialist advice and support service to quickly address the diverse needs of our residents. 
We will support early intervention multi-agency approaches to meet the complex needs of people identified at risk to prevent homelessness, and support them to access and sustain safe and suitable accommodation.

We propose to:

• reshape and transform Cumberland Housing teams approaches to `how, when and where’, including a focus on understanding people’s strengths and aspirations, as well as risks and needs
• improve online advice and support and ensure that targeted information is available in a range of suitable formats
• establish a new Cumberland Preventing Homelessness Partnership
• create internal and external training programme to raise awareness and embed a homelessness prevention champions network
• ensure those with lived experience, minority and hard to reach groups are positively and actively engaged in shaping service delivery and approaches

5: Tackle systematic housing insecurity

We will build strong partnerships and systems to support the strategic priorities for Cumberland. We will work with partners to tackle the root causes of housing inequality and insecurity by advocating for change and helping residents make informed decisions about their housing issues.

We propose to:

• host annual events for partners and stakeholders on homelessness themes
• regularly share data and updates to address local homelessness and rehousing issues, using multi agency tools for information sharing and risk assessment
• align strategic priorities with the Councils wider key Housing Policy, supporting activity to develop new homes to prevent and effectively relieve homelessness
• remove system barriers to meaningful information sharing and joint working for those with complex needs and rehousing challenges
• actively involve and engage people with lived experience to deliver positive impact together

A full data review has been completed and will be published with the strategy once adopted. Key trends that have guided the strategy include:
 
A continued annual increase in homelessness.

Significant groups of people seeking support include:

• single people in crisis 
• those asking for help due to being asked to leave a living arrangement with a family member continue 
• people with mental health issues presenting in crisis
• people with complex needs and identifying as being multiple excluded

Increased numbers of people seeking support in the following groups:

• people renting privately being asked to leave, particularly families with dependent children
• people who are homeless because of domestic abuse
• care experienced young people presenting as homeless 
• working people presenting as homeless
• people aged under 35 years old 
• people engaged within the criminal justice systems including those assessed as posing a higher risk to the public (MAPPA managed cases)

People continue to present when already homeless at the time of assessment.

There has been a reduction of those found rough sleeping over the course of the review period, but an increase in people who have never rough slept before.

Increased demand for emergency temporary accommodation and with longer occupancy periods.

A lack of a range of local affordable and suitable housing to prevent and alleviate homelessness. 

We have identified the following areas to learn more about in Cumberland:

• the barriers or issues residents and communities face with accessing early advice and support from the council
• the areas of policy and practice in Cumberland that can give rise to housing inequality and insecurity for our residents
• further identifying and building on best practice within and beyond Cumberland to prevent homelessness and sustain accommodation
• learning where wider partnerships could be further developed to deliver a holistic package of support
• learning how data and technology can be used more effectively to improve services

Key homelessness review findings:   

• there were 2725 approaches the council for housing advice and assistance
• 1,826 homelessness duties were owed
• family no longer willing to accommodate is the main reason for homelessness accounting for 33% of all cases
• in the last year, there has been a 11% increase in homelessness assessments
• mental health is the most prevalent support need
• 67% of all households had a support need
• 70% of those owed a homelessness duty are single applicants
• 54% had their homelessness successfully prevented
• 44% had their homelessness successfully relieved
• 379 households were placed in temporary accommodation, 40% of which had children
• 153 individuals identified as experiencing or at risk of rough sleeping have been supported
• 10,819 households are on the housing register, of which 64% have a need for 1 bedroom accommodation
• 42% of applicants identified as being multiple excluded, with 76% having substance misuse needs
• 49% of all those owed a homeless duty are aged under 35 years old 
• in the last 12 months, 251 domestic abuse victims were supported in safe accommodation
• 63% of households placed in temporary accommodation are offenders; 14% of which are females
• 88% of all homeless applicants were supported to access a positive accommodation outcome
• over the last 12 months there has been a 12% increase in care experienced homelessness presentations
• main reason for priority housing need (main duty) is households with dependent children
• 18% more people are homeless in Cumberland because of leaving criminal justice systems (than in England)
• 30% of households owed a homelessness duty are in employment
• 25% of all residents in TA are aged under 35 years
• average length of stay is 15 weeks (this has increased by 5 weeks (2020-24)
• 13% of all TA placements are due to domestic abuse