Ealing approves homelessness package
Ealing Council’s cabinet has agreed a three-part package intended to change how the borough supports people who are homeless, sleeping rough or at risk of losing their homes. The decisions, made at the cabinet meeting on 7 October, cover the allocation of temporary accommodation, a renewed lease for emergency family accommodation in Ruislip and a five-year homelessness and rough-sleeping strategy.
The combined approach links immediate accommodation decisions with longer-term prevention. The council says the measures are intended to prioritise households with the greatest needs, improve temporary homes available to families and set out action to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.
New placement framework
A new placement policy is intended to make decisions about who is offered accommodation first fairer, clearer and more consistent. It applies to placements in temporary accommodation and privately rented housing, and organises priorities into three zones. The framework recognises that some households need to stay close to particular services or support networks, while allowing the council to use the accommodation available to it.
People with specialist medical, social-care or education needs are to receive priority for accommodation within Ealing. Other groups, including families with children and care leavers, are to be prioritised for accommodation within a specified distance of the borough. The policy does not remove individual assessment: the council says each placement will continue to take account of the household’s circumstances.
The framework is about prioritising scarce accommodation, rather than promising that every household will be housed in its preferred area. Decisions will have to reflect both a household’s support needs and the homes available at the time. That makes the individual circumstances clause an important part of how the policy is described.
Two more years at the Barn Hotel
The cabinet also agreed a new two-year lease for The Barn Hotel in Ruislip, which the council uses as emergency “stepping stone” temporary accommodation for local families. The council says continuing to use the site will help reduce reliance on bed-and-breakfast accommodation it considers unsuitable and expensive, while giving families a more stable setting as they seek longer-term housing.
The dedicated accommodation has on-site management, cooking facilities and laundry facilities. Under the new lease, rooms are being changed to create larger family spaces and better food-preparation areas. The council says it is continuing to develop support services at the site, including advice and practical help, and opportunities for families to move into more settled accommodation.
The renewed lease is one part of the package, not a claim that the wider temporary-accommodation problem has been resolved. The council says it has sharply reduced the number of families living in bed and breakfasts over the past two years, and presents the lease as a way to continue that progress. The announcement does not provide a new numerical count of families affected or quantify the expected reduction, so the scale of any further change cannot be stated from the decision announcement.
Five-year strategy to prevent homelessness
The third decision was agreement of a new homelessness and rough-sleeping strategy setting out the council’s intended direction for the next five years. Its stated ambition is for homelessness and rough sleeping to become “rare, brief and non-recurring”. The strategy focuses on preventing homelessness before it occurs, helping people move quickly into settled homes, improving experiences for households in temporary accommodation and supporting people to rebuild their lives and maintain independence.
Its listed actions include improving access to housing advice and prevention services, strengthening support for people at greatest risk, and using early intervention and outreach to prevent rough sleeping. It also points to increasing the supply of good temporary accommodation, improving routes into longer-term housing for people moving on from rough sleeping, and working with partners on underlying causes.
Agreement by cabinet is not the end of the strategy process. The council says a consultation will take place in the coming weeks before the strategy is finalised. The policy framework and renewed lease have been agreed, while the strategy remains subject to that consultation before finalisation.
Together, the decisions span three stages of support: deciding how accommodation is allocated, providing an interim place for families, and setting a longer-term plan focused on prevention and move-on housing. Their practical effect will depend on how the placement criteria are applied to individual households, the accommodation available and the strategy that emerges after consultation.
