A NEW approach to helping homeless people in Oxfordshire, with an emphasis on housing them first and foremost, is hoped to end rough sleeping for good.

The new ‘housing-led’ approach to homelessness, the first of its kind in the UK, will see people who have been rough sleeping, or living in insecure accommodation, like sofa surfing, given their own homes before other problems they might have are solved.

Many rough sleepers, for example, experience mental illness or have a history of substance abuse.

Current support often gives them temporary accommodation while they get help for these problems, before moving them on into more long-term homes.

But the new way of commissioning help for the homeless will see them given their own place to live as the priority.

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As the plans were signed off by Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet on Wednesday, the way in which a home can give someone’s wellbeing a boost was emphasised.

Council leader Ian Hudspeth said: “It is not just about getting people off the streets, it is about providing them with that journey so they have that home of their own which is so important.”

However, there was also a warning from cabinet member for adult social care and public health, Lawrie Stratford, that the pandemic could lead to more people becoming homeless.

Mr Stratford said: “The approach we are looking to take will improve services for homeless adults and those at risk of homelessness. I fear this will actually increase following a year of the pandemic where families at risk of unemployment may struggle.”

The new scheme will see all of Oxfordshire’s district councils, which are responsible for housing services, work more closely together with the county council and the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which manages local NHS services, to help homeless people access the help they need.

While all the councils and the CCG currently spend £846,600 on a pooled homelessness project, a budget of £3.14m has been agreed for the new housing led scheme.

The approach was described as ground-breaking by the homelessness charity Crisis, which wrote a report emphasising the only way Oxfordshire’s authorities could prevent rough sleeping is by adopting a housing-led approach.

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The charity said similar approaches had been successful in other countries, including Finland, but that the Oxfordshire plan was the first of its kind in the UK.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “We are hugely encouraged by the commitment shown across Oxfordshire in preventing and ending homelessness. This is not a quick fix but instead a bold, long-term strategy developed with the help of people in Oxfordshire who have experienced the trauma of homelessness and those who have worked tirelessly to tackle it.”

Throughout the pandemic, all rough sleepers in Oxfordshire have had the offer of a bed at shelters across the county as a result of an initiative called Everyone In.

This aimed to get all rough sleepers off the streets to prevent Covid spreading among them easily, but has since become the basis for work to now help many rough sleepers into long-term homes.

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