Decision details

For the Director of Housing and Growth to approve the contract variation in accordance with CSO 10.2.1(a) with a total value of £118,901 covering the period 12th January 2018 to 11th January 2019 bring the total value of the Contract to £237,802.

The award of Flexible Homelessness Support Grant (FHSG) funding of £118,901 in contracts with St Mungo’s for the period January 12th 2018 to January 11th 2019 meets the Council’s strategic commitment to deliver early intervention to people in crisis, preventing homelessness. The Flexible Homelessness Support Grant is a ring-fenced grant from Central Government, to be used for ‘work to prevent or deal with homelessness’. Haringey has been allocated £8,630,852 per year for 17/18 and 18/19, with further announcements on 19/20 expected in ‘winter 2017’. Future funding allocations will be closely linked to boroughs ability to prevent homelessness at scale.

The FHSG funding will be used to increase the staffing in High Cross Road- Complex Needs Service to 24-hour support and provide support to an additional 11 service users in council owned properties on Hale Road. The increase in staffing and units will enable the service to rapidly and safely accommodate more vulnerable homeless people (including rough sleepers and those exiting institutions or hospital).

The council owns several properties on Hale Road, N17, which fall within a regeneration area. These properties are due to be demolished within the next 2 years and were decanted some time ago to prepare for this. Since then they have been used as Houses of Multiple Occupation and are configured as such internally. The units are currently vacant and being refurbished to a suitable standard for use in a ‘short life’ capacity, prior to their demolition.

It is proposed that these units be leased to St Mungo’s. St Mungo’s will manage the properties on Hale Road and provide support to the tenants, with staff on site between 9am and 5pm daily. Nominations to the scheme will be from Haringey’s Single Homeless Pathway, which offers accommodation and support to vulnerable single homeless people, enabling them to rebuild their lives and recover from homelessness and other issues that inhibit their independence.

This is an urgent requirement; currently around 10 vulnerable single homeless people a month are being placed into general needs temporary accommodation without appropriate support and the number of rough sleepers in Haringey is at a record high, with 43 rough sleepers identified as sleeping on the streets during a single night in November 2017. One of the reasons for this is the shortage of suitable supported accommodation for them to rapidly move off the street in to.

The council has an ongoing need for family-sized temporary accommodation and officers did consider converting the properties back into single occupancy, family-sized accommodation to be let as Temporary Accommodation. However, this option was discounted as it was felt the need for additional supported accommodation for vulnerable single people as an alternative to general needs temporary accommodation was greater, and the units would better lend themselves to this use, given their existing configuration.

It is in the Council’s overall interest to agree to waiver and award a contract to St Mungo’s for the delivery of the support element of this service. St Mungo’s are an existing provider of housing-related support in Haringey and have the expertise to rapidly meet the multiple and complex needs of clients accessing the Pathway.

Officers did consider procuring the housing-related support element of this scheme via an open tender process. However, this option was discounted due to the pressing nature of the need for this service, the current availability and limited lifespan of the properties involved and the length of time that an open tender process would take.

As an existing provider within the Single Homeless Pathway, St Mungo’s are best placed to rapidly implement a new service, seamlessly integrating it with existing provision.