Cornwall’s Partnership Approach to Preventing Homelessness & Rough Sleeping

Cornwall’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategy was approved by Cornwall Council’s Cabinet in March 2020. Since then, the pandemic has created an exceptional set of circumstances around public health and rough sleeping, as well as putting more people at risk of homelessness due to financial hardship.

Cornwall’s strategic Homeless Forum has released its first annual report, setting out how organisations in Cornwall have responded to the challenges faced over the last eighteen months and highlights some of the amazing work that has been undertaken under each of the Strategy’s Priorities.

You can download the full report here.

Highlights:

Key facts:

Prevention:

1 – deliver a range of solutions so that no one in Cornwall needs to sleep rough

2 – Work together to ensure that there is ‘no wrong door’ for people at risk of homelessness and that they only ‘tell their story once’

3 – Champion early ‘upstream’ preventative work with households at risk of homelessness and, where appropriate, empower and enable households to find their own solution to prevent their homelessness

Intervention:

1 – Deliver a suitable and appropriate alternative to Bed & Breakfast placements

2 – Continue to deliver a range of housing solutions such as the Somewhere Safe to Stay Hub to ensure that nobody has to spend a first or subsequent night on the streets

3 – Develop the housing market, intervening where necessary, to ensure a supply of suitable accommodation to meet identified needs

Recovery:

1 – Work to deliver effective and enhanced provision for people with complex needs

2 – Build resilience against future homelessness crises by working together to ensure there every opportunity is taken to move individuals and families towards and into settled accommodation that they can sustain