Kirklees Council turn to emergency accommodation solutions to house 300 homeless residents

Kirklees council is relying on emergency accommodation solutions such as B&Bs to ensure the 300 residents currently without a council house have a roof over their heads.

At Kirklees Council’s Economy and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee meeting on Tuesday, November 22, the issue of homelessness and long-term housing for tenants was discussed.

Naz Parkar, service director for housing and meighbourhoods said: “As a council, we have a statutory duty to prevent homelessness and to accommodate those who are deemed to be priority need in terms of homelessness.”

“These are broad figures, but currently we have just a little over 300 people in temporary accommodation, many of whom are in bed and breakfasts. Again, at last count, as I recall the number, it was 89 households in bed and breakfasts. So we have a duty to house them permanently once we’ve got the availability of stock that is appropriate to the needs of those individuals or those households.”

Emergency housing is a temporary measure designed to tackle homelessness until the council can provide long-term homes for the tenants. However, the reintegration of these tenants into permanent housing is thought to be a potential cause of anti-social behavioural problems for Kirklees.

At the meeting, Coun Aafaq Butt (Labour, Heckmondwike) also asked a question about the procedures in place when it comes to tackling anti-social behaviour in council properties. He said: “we’ve had a lot of issues around an area called Beech Grove which is just off New North Road in Heckmondwike. We have people there that have substantial mental health issues, given the assessed medical need that’s here, and there is a mix with people who don’t have mental health issues, of course.

“We’ve been there and we’ve witnessed a lot of the issues that go on there from those people that have that. And there’s a lot of sub-letting going on around there as well – you probably find that everywhere.

“I guess my question is around what sort of procedures do we have for those people in terms of making sure that the other people that live there that are affected by people that live there and the anti-social behaviour, what happens for them and what protections do we provide?”

In response, Mr Parkar explained that some of the tenants re-homed from emergency accommodation to mixed communities may be responsible for anti-social behavioural issues at a local level. He went on to speak of his colleague’s work in tackling the issue. He said: “Michelle’s team in housing management and partnerships respond to that in terms of the tenancy agreements and being clear with those tenants that might be causing the nuisance that the tenancy binds them to certain types of behaviour.

"Where that continues we can issue warnings against the tenancy agreement. Where it continues beyond that, we then have the court process to go through but to get to the court process and to get a secure possession we do need that evidential threshold which requires the cooperation of those people who might be subject to the anti-social behaviour which can be a bind, it falls over, I’m not sure it’s sometimes a bit of a blunt instrument…”