Bridgend County Borough Council targets homelessness situation

The Cabinet of Bridgend County Borough Council has approved the purchase of a further three properties to provide temporary accommodation and acknowledged the range of strategies undertaken by the council in a bid to address the stark homelessness situation across the county borough.

In the midst of a nationwide homelessness crisis, the use of temporary accommodation services has increased exponentially in Bridgend County Borough.  There were 71 households in temporary accommodation at the end of 2018/19 and 253 households at the end of 2022/23, equating to a 256 percent rise within this time frame.  At the end of August 2024, the council was providing temporary accommodation to 265 households.

This situation has been compounded by a wider increase in demand for social housing.  Since 2019-2020, the total number of applicants on the Bridgend Common Housing Register at the end of each year has risen substantially.  At the end of 2019/2020 there were 816 applicants, compared to 3,254 applicants on the Common Housing Register at the end of August 2024.  This is largely attributed to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, as well as the reduction of the number of properties that are affordable in the private rental sector.

In line with the aims of the Housing Support Programme Strategy, the local authority has taken a number of steps to alleviate the pressures on temporary accommodation services.    

For example, the purchasing of properties to ease the enormous demand for temporary accommodation.  This also enables the authority to make medium term financial savings, with such accommodation costing around 70 percent less than the average alternative rental property.

Partnership working is also key in addressing the bleak homelessness situation.  In recent months a ‘Bridgend Housing Partnership’ has been created, uniting senior staff members of Registered Social Landlords with council staff to develop a collective understanding of challenges, as well as a strategic oversight.  Another example is the recent uplift to the Housing Support Grant funding from Welsh Government, ensuring that accommodation providers can address any pay pressures and that no contracts are in deficit.  Working relations with third sector partners are vital to assist the delivery of temporary and supported accommodation projects, as well as to help those households threatened with homelessness, reducing the need for temporary accommodation at a later date.

Capital funding from Welsh Government supports the provision of affordable housing in the county borough, with funding streams assisting a variety of projects to create extra housing capacity, including the building of new homes and the improvement of existing buildings.

Cllr Neelo Farr, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Economic Development and Housing, said: “We are faced with an unprecedented, nationwide homelessness situation that requires a proactive and dynamic response.

“Our Housing Support Programme Strategy and Action Plan for 2022-2026 offers key steps to address and alleviate the challenges that our homelessness services are experiencing.

“The four-year plan adopts a varied, yet targeted approach.  It ranges from aiming to increase the provision of affordable and social housing, to working in partnership with other agencies to prevent homelessness.

“Our Housing Support Programme Strategy has considered all angles in tackling homelessness across the county borough over the coming years, with the goal of making homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated. 

“The ending of homelessness is a priority for the council and is a shared responsibility with all public services, with the third sector also having a role to play.  Partnership working is central to everything we do.”