By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
A plan to reduce the number of people sleeping rough in Nottingham to single figures and get more families out of temporary accommodation has been approved by Nottingham City Council.
More than 50 people are thought to be sleeping on city streets every night, and hundreds of others are being housed by the council in temporary accommodation.
Under the new plan, the council is looking to reduce the number of rough sleepers found on a monthly count in Nottingham down to single figures by 2028.
The full strategy reveals 739 different people were found rough sleeping in the city over the past year, while the annual street count shows 56 people have been found sleeping rough each night on average.
During an Executive Board meeting on Tuesday (December 17), where the strategy was approved, Cllr Jay Hayes (Lab), executive member for housing and planning, said: “We’ve seen over the last couple of years housing prices increasing, not just in Nottingham but all across the country.
“Homelessness can happen to any of us and the impact of homelessness on people’s lives is enormous, but also the impact on the cost to the council to house people in emergency accommodation, most notably hotels and B&Bs.
“The strategy has [a number of priorities] like that homelessness is prevented, and does not occur, the issues and causes of homelessness are addressed and dealt with earlier, that homelessness is only brief and for a short period of time while people get into more secure, long-term accommodation and that we work to reduce rough sleeping in the city.”
Cllr Hayes added a Homelessness Reduction Board is being created to ensure cross-sector accountability of the strategy’s aims.
The council’s plan outlines its hopes to reduce other forms of homelessness, particularly the use of temporary accommodation.
Documents show the number of households in temporary accommodation has increased by 122 per cent from a snapshot of 349 households in in the 12 months to April 2020 to 776 households in the 12 months to April 2024.
The authority says it is hoping to reduce the percentage of families in temporary accommodation to 70 per cent of all households by 2026, while also slashing the average length of stay to under 180 days at the same time.
By January 2026 the council is further hoping to reduce the number of single people placed in hotels to a snapshot of under 10, and cut the number of families placed in nightly-paid temporary accommodation to a snapshot of under 100.
Dr Paul Scotting, chair of the Nottingham Homelessness Voluntary Sector Forum, says more than 40 voluntary, community and faith groups, and over 1,000 volunteers, have been working to support the council’s efforts.
“However, these are challenging times,” he says in the report.
“The demand on charitable foundations that fund this essential work has grown significantly, and the financial support Nottingham City Council has provided through commissioned services has been crucial.
“Over the next five years, we aim to build on our partnerships with the city council, the NHS, and other statutory bodies by sharing knowledge and expertise.
“Together with the council, we also hope to forge stronger connections with the local business community to explore how they can best support our efforts to tackle homelessness.
“Our commitment is to collaborate with all agencies to deliver the best possible outcomes for those experiencing homelessness in Nottingham.”
