The real challenge is moving homeless people out of hostels, a councillor has said.
Linda Smith, Oxford City Council cabinet member for housing, has said the city is not experiencing a shortage of beds for the homeless but is struggling with moving people on to more permanent accommodation.
Ms Smith said there were a “lot of people who were ready to move on and live independently” but there are “very few houses in the private sector which are affordable”.
Oxford City Council is investing £1.7 million in homeless prevention grants this year and this will fund the 236 beds which are provided by the Oxfordshire Homeless Alliance.
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Ms Smith said: “It is about decreasing the amount of time they are in these settings- that is the challenge as opposed to more space for homeless people.
“This is the bottleneck we face”.
Ms Smith said the council’s homeless strategy was focused on prevention and reducing the time people spent in hostels such as Floyds Row and O’Hanlon House.
However, Ms Smith acknowledged there was far too many families living in temporary accommodation.
She said: “We have 126 families in temporary accommodation which is far higher than it has been for a number of years and far higher than we would like.
“A lot of people are on the waiting list for council housing as well.”
Floyds Row provides 20 beds in the city centre and these beds are prioritised for people who are new to rough sleeping.
The accommodation is not offered on a first comes first served basis and people are offered “intensive support” before they are moved on to something more long term.
The average stay for people residing in Floyds Row is between two and three weeks.
Simon Hewett-Avison, CEO of Homeless Oxfordshire, works at O’Hanlon House and said they provide accommodation for people who are extremely vulnerable in society.
He said: “Out of the 52 beds, we have a list of eight or nine people who need additional welfare checks”.
Mr Hewett-Avison said the real difficulties the hostel was facing were “capacity and bottlenecks”.
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A Oxford University psychology student helps out two days a week and Mr Hewett-Avison said more psychology students were desperately needed.
He explained moving people out to affordable housing was still a “real challenge” and more residential care was required.
Mr Hewett-Avison also revealed there were some people who were in prison and waiting for space to free up in O’ Hanlon House.
He said: “We certainly have a small handful who have been in prison.”
Those who have served time in prison have typically found it harder to move on and find affordable housing.
Mr Hewett-Avison said O’Hanlon House has around 10 to 12 people who are “never going to leave because they will always need a type of facility like this”.
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