Housing Related Support
“Chairman
Lincolnshire County Council currently commission a Housing Related Support Service across the whole of Lincolnshire. The Housing Related Support service offers short term support for vulnerable adults who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, and have substance use and /or mental health concerns. It helps them deal with the issues that led to their current situation and develop skills to live independently. Support is offered in various locations, including hostels, people’s own homes and within the community.
The current service is delivered by the Lincolnshire Housing Related Support Partnership, which is made up of Framework Housing, Amplius (formerly Longhurst Group), The Salvation Army and Nacro.
In West Lindsey this service is provided by Amplius and there are 31 units delivered as part of this contract, these break down as 16 accommodation-based units and 15 floating support. The accommodation-based units are delivered in two ways, 12 units of supported accommodation at The Foyer in Gainsborough and 4 units of self-contained move-on accommodation.
All referrals into this service come from West Lindsey District Council and so to be eligible you have to be accessing the homelessness services. The current service holds a waiting list due to the demand for the support in West Lindsey, both the accommodation based and floating support.
In the past 3 years, since 16th December 2022, West Lindsey District Council Homelessness Prevention team have made 335 referrals to the accommodation-based support and 273 to the floating support. That is over 600 vulnerable people who have been eligible for support through this service in West Lindsey.
The service in its current form is in place until September 2026 and there is a consultation underway currently to help inform future decisions by LCC about the direction of the service moving forward.
Although this service is Housing Related Support, in order to be eligible, people must have either a mental health or substance misuse issue. This service is in place to prevent the requirement for Adult Social Care to provide other support and services, and so even though it is a housing related support service, the housing element of this is funded through housing benefit and not from Lincolnshire County Council, they are only funding the additional mental health or substance misuse support.
Lincolnshire County Council have indicated there may not be as much funding if any, available for this service from September 2026 onwards. This would have huge implications for our residents with so many of the most vulnerable residents in the area being referred to this service for support.
Work is underway across the County with other District housing leads to demonstrate the importance of this service and evidence the impact a reduction in this service would have on some of our most vulnerable residents. The Lincolnshire District Chief Executives have already written to the County Council expressing concerns.
As such I request that the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive ensure that the Council responds to the consultation currently being undertaken setting out the District Council’s view on this matter and the very negative impacts it will bring to the most vulnerable residents in our community including –
· Worsening health outcomes due to lack of stability and access to care
· Increased mortality, with rough sleepers dying on average at age 45
· Entrenched homelessness, leading to costly cycles through crisis services
· Social exclusion, isolation, and vulnerability to exploitation
· Fragmented care, especially for dual diagnosis cases
· Increased pressure on the NHS and other emergency services leading to additional and increasing public costs
Furthermore, this Council requests that the Leader raises this matter with other Lincolnshire District Leaders seeking their support to submit similar representations to the County Council.
I so move
Councillor Emma Bailey”