19/02/21

Cardiff Council's ‘No Going Back' approach to the delivery of homelessness services in the city will take another stride forward next week if plans to buy a new facility are agreed.

At its next meeting on Thursday, February 25, Cabinet will consider a proposal to purchase the YHA hostel on East Tyndall Street, accommodation the Council has been using since last Spring when extra spaces were need to keep clients safe during the pandemic.

The facility provided 80 of the182 additional units of supported accommodation that were established across a number of sites to address homelessness during the health crisis, and its good quality accommodation and on-site support services have played an integral role in achieving real change in vulnerable people's lives.

The number of people sleeping rough in the city is now consistently low - in single figures for the past few months, and more people than ever before are engaging with life-changing support services, such as therapeutic counselling, mental health support and substance misuse treatment.

Permanently acquiring the 80 bed hostel will ensure the continuity ofaccommodation and support for single homeless people, and together with other improved provision and changes to the way services are delivered, will further support the Council's new vision for homelessness services.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, said: "The opportunity to buy the YHA hostel we've been using for almost 12 months now is an exciting one. The accommodation and services we've delivered there have been crucial to the success we have had during that time, supporting people away from life on the streets. 

"We've had an unprecedented opportunity to work with the vulnerable people who needed our support over the past year and we don't want to lose that momentum. We've committed to ‘No Going Back' and buying the hostel is an important step on that journey."

Cabinet will also be updated on the progress of the authority's new model for homelessness services, including the establishment of a new assessment centre and on-site emergency accommodation for single people, the expansion of the city's Multi-Disciplinary Team which takes an holistic approach to tackling an individual's homelessness, new supported accommodation schemes and family homelessness projects.

Cllr Thorne added: "We are making such good progress on all aspects of the new vision we outlined last summer. I'm confident that new provision such as the assessment centre and new family homelessness centres coming on stream this year will enable us to sustain the success we had in 2020 and ensure we are doing the best we can to support vulnerable individuals and families experiencing homelessness."