Council commits to supporting city’s most vulnerable residents with new homelessness strategy

A new five-year strategy to help support rough sleepers and individuals facing homelessness in Stoke-on-Trent is set to be approved.

Since 2020, the city council has consistently been one of the best performing local authorities in the country for tackling and preventing homelessness.

It has taken a number of measures including:

• Opening a new Homelessness Hub that supports more than 900 people every month
• Creating 74 new bed spaces through rough sleeper programmes
• Introducing a pre-eviction protocol for providers of supported housing to help reduce the number of people ending up on the streets
• Peer mentors – with lived experience of homelessness – have also helped to deliver activities like cooking and arts and crafts
• Health services – programmes have been introduced to provide mental health support and health services for some of the most vulnerable individuals and around 200 people each month are accessing these services

The council, which secured around £20 million of funding between 2020 and 2025 to deliver rough sleeping initiatives, has also commissioned a female-only night shelter for victims of domestic abuse, including those who are sleeping rough and who cannot access other accommodation, such as refuges.

Despite all those efforts, homelessness has continued to increase both nationally and locally due to a number of factors including the cost of living crisis, inflation, and a shortage of high-quality affordable housing.

Now a new strategy which outlines the council’s priorities for the next five years is being considered by cabinet later this month.

Councillor Chris Robinson, cabinet member for housing, planning, improvement and governance at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “Everybody deserves to have a safe and secure place to call home, yet we still see a significant number of our residents finding themselves without a home or living in insecure accommodation.

“Homelessness is a complex issue, it reaches far beyond a simple lack of housing. We have an excellent track record of tackling and preventing homelessness but this new strategy does not shy away from the challenges we are facing as a city.

“We will continue to work with our trusted partners to ensure fewer people are sleeping rough on our streets. Together, it is our responsibility to support our most vulnerable residents and drive down homelessness in the city.”

The Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025-2030 has been developed following public consultation and a review into homelessness in Stoke-on-Trent.

Over the next five years, the strategy will raise the priority of homelessness prevention in the city and introduce robust pathways to identify and prevent crisis situations. There will also be early intervention support for groups who are particularly vulnerable to becoming homeless, including care leavers, single parent families and Armed Forces veterans.

The strategy also focuses on exploring new ways to make the best use of the existing accommodation options available in the city. This forms part of the council’s plan to bring more empty homes back into use as well as pressing ahead with plans to create nearly 5,000 new homes in coming years.