Cllr Michael Pavlovic – speaking to The Press after City of York Council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy was approved – said the ‘Housing First’ approach is what is needed to address homelessness in York.
The approach, which has been implemented in places including Greater Manchester and Finland, prioritises permanent housing with personal wraparound support for people based on their needs.
It aims to move away from hostel accommodation and stop people having to rely on homelessness services.
The new approach comes after Cllr Pavlovic pledged to end rough sleeping in York by 2027 which he admitted “is going to be difficult”.
“If it was easy we would have resolved rough sleeping long ago,” he said. “But I believe, and the evidence suggests, that this approach is the best chance we’re going to have of meeting that target.”
“People who are on the streets die too young, they don’t get the health care they need, they don’t get the support that they need,” said Cllr Pavlovic, who ran the Robinson Court homeless hostel and worked as a probation officer before entering politics.
He added: “I’ve seen too many people I know that are no longer with us sadly, and that’s the reality.”
Cllr Pavlovic said Housing First “can really make a difference” for the most vulnerable homeless people, as a permanent house can help them get off the streets and avoid falling victim to issues like addiction.
“It is for people who are recurring homeless, who fail in every environment that’s offered to them,” he said.
York has already seen success with the model which started being implemented in the city over the past five years, Cllr Pavlovic said, adding that around 60 properties are currently in use for Housing First.
“What we’ve seen is about 80 per cent of people living within Housing First in York have been able to maintain a tenancy over a 12-month then three-year period,” he said.
Cllr Pavlovic added that the figure is “far in excess of what we see in traditional models” which have a 40 to 60 per cent success rate.
Council obtaining stock of 250 homes over five years is achievable, says housing boss
As The Press has reported, the council must obtain a stock of 250 single-bed homes in the next five years for the strategy to be a success.
This number is based on the potential supply of 155 new build one-bed flats for social/affordable rent and up to 445 existing social housing flats that could be allocated for Housing First.
Cllr Pavlovic said the goal is achievable.
“The Local Plan will be delivering but we’ve also got our own housing delivery programme,” he said.
Concerns have been raised, including by the deputy leader of the York Liberal Democrats, about the possibility of people who are waiting for a council house trying to declare themselves homeless so they can be housed under Housing First.
But Cllr Pavlovic said this is unlikely to be the case.
“You’ve got to be identified as legitimately homeless; you can’t make yourself intentionally homeless to benefit from Housing First, or any other initiative,” he said.
Cllr Pavlovic added that 1,446 people are currently on the council’s housing waiting list, including people who are homeless and rough sleeping.
Meanwhile, the executive member said the decision to move away from housing people in hostels came after the council found that 60 per cent of the people at the facilities in York “didn’t need to be there”.
“They were there because that’s all that was available,” he said, adding: “If 60 per cent of the people living in the hostels don’t need to be living in the hotels, what’s the point of paying for 24 hour a day cover?”
Cllr Pavlovic said the finding was made after the authority conducted two needs analyses – in 2022 and 2024 – across the 115 hostel beds in York.
Strategy comes after council announced all homelessness services would be brought in house
The council’s strategy to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping came after the authority announced that it would bring all homelessness services in house, rather than contracting them out to organisations like the Salvation Army and Changing Lives.
At the time of the announcement, The Press told how it caused controversy.
Particularly, because it meant the council would not renew the Salvation Army’s £95,000-a year funding for its rough sleepers early intervention programme.
Recommended reading:
Under the programme, members of the charity’s early intervention team took to the streets of York at 5am five days a week, checking on people sleeping rough and directing them to help.
The council provides a similar service with its team of ‘navigators’ who check on rough sleepers every morning.
Navigators direct these people towards support, “continuing through their journey into their own accommodation and beyond”, Cllr Pavlovic said.
He could not say what time the navigators go out but said “it’s early”.
On the council ending its contract with the Salvation Army, Cllr Pavlovic said: “It was considered at the time that it was a duplication of an existing service.
“And at the time, when the budget pressures were as significant as the budget pressures were – and are – there was no point in duplicating that service.”
What do you think?
Send your views in a letter to: letters@thepress.co.uk
Write no more than 250 words and please provide your full name, address and mobile number.
