‘I’m so proud of our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy’

West Norfolk Council’s cabinet member for people and communities Jo Rust writes this week’s Friday Politics column…West Norfolk Council recently launched its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy – the way that the borough plans to address homelessness and rough sleeping person by person. As the cabinet member for people and communities, I was so proud to be a small part of what’s an excellent piece of work that has taken into account the voices of those who work in the sector, volunteer in the sector and, most importantly, those who’ve lived experience of being homeless or sleeping rough.At the launch it was right that we celebrated some of the wonderful things our borough has to offer and to be proud of. We’re a borough of great potential and beauty; we have a thriving tourist sector, our coastline is stunning and many of our villages are picture-postcard perfect. I always think of Great Massingham, with its duckponds, overlooked by the pub and the church, as one of them.

And we’re also a borough with growing ambition, with a cabinet and councillors determined to make that ambition a reality. Even though we’ve historically had low levels of academic attainment, in the bottom 10% in England, there’s a really strong and growing impetus towards change. Whether that’s with the Boost education and training, the new university centre at The College of West Anglia or the efforts to get a dental school in our area, we’re working towards growing the aspirations of our residents and then being able to fulfil that aspiration.But unfortunately, we’re also a borough of inequalities. We’re home to some of the most deprived wards in England right next door to some of the least deprived, such as North Lynn and North Wootton where you’re likely to die ten years earlier in North Lynn than if you live just a mile away in North Wootton.We also see a lot of disadvantaged rural areas, where inequality is rife. These inequalities bring with them risk factors which contribute towards homelessness, such as poor mental health, criminality, substance use and unemployment. But there are also some worrying new trends that we have to be aware of; such as an increase in people approaching services who are in some form of employment and an increase in the proportion of families approaching us. In addition, we have a cohort of people who face homelessness repeatedly. In the last four years, over a quarter of the people approaching the borough as homeless had previously approached the borough in the same period for the same reason.

Our strategy considers all this and seeks to treat everyone approaching the service with a need as an individual rather than part of a homogenous mass which is sometimes the case with services like housing and homelessness. Those who use homelessness services very often come with trauma and stories that would shock and sadden us. I’ve seen first-hand the impact that homelessness has on people’s lives, and it’s heartbreaking. A young person was one of a group of us who were sleeping out, in the town centre, to raise awareness of homelessness. We did this in safety, in a public space with the police aware and supportive. The mayor opened the event, and there was a feeling of camaraderie and it was relatively warm and definitely safe. The young person I spoke to had previously been homeless for four years as a teenager, from the age of 13 to 17. I asked him when he had felt the safest and he said, when he was sleeping in the bushes at Lynnsport – because no one could see him. When he was visible, sleeping on the streets, he’d been urinated on, spat on and attacked. Can you imagine this happening to your child? And can you imagine how that experience would impact you as you entered adulthood?Our homelessness and rough sleeping strategy also dovetails with our corporate strategy and our work to become a Marmot Place. Currently, all local authorities and the government are saying that they’ve got tough decisions to make over cuts to services, but our council remains committed to taking the necessary action to eliminate homelessness. We know that won’t happen overnight, but by maintaining close partnerships with partners and having clear and transparent processes in place, we’re doing our best with an ever-challenged budget. If you do see someone in a doorway or visible elsewhere that you’re worried about, please use Street Link – streetlink.org.uk, to report them. They’ll then contact our local services who’ll assess and support. It’s a sad topic to approach as we get closer to Christmas, but I hope our work will see an improvement soon for all our struggling residents.