Community Housing Performance

How did we do in 2010/11?

Temporary Accommodation

We have worked hard to reduce the number of households staying in temporary accommodation (mostly households which have been found to be homeless by the council and to whom we have a statutory duty to house) by arranging alternative suitable accommodation, where possible. 

At the end of March 2011, the number of households in temporary accommodation was down to 156, a reduction of 35% from March 2010 (240). We aim to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation further to 130 or less, by the end of March 2011.

Number of households in temporary accommodation


 
The Accommodation and Sustainment Team is currently contracted by Supporting People to provide increased support to 30 clients in Temporary Accommodation. The purpose of the support is to assist and empower clients to develop independent living skills, so those clients can positively move on from temporary accommodation. Supporting People review our performance quarterly, monitoring how many clients have used the service each quarter, how many hours of support we have provided and how many of those clients have moved on positively. Our performance in relation to this has been very good, and is shown below:


 

Homeless Claims and Acceptances

We saw nearly 3,000 people at the Housing Options Duty service in the last year, visited more than 200 people and assisted 249 households to access private rented accommodation by helping with a deposit. Through continued homelessness prevention work, the council has reduced the number of people becoming homeless or threatened with homelessness. In 2010/11 we accepted 123 households as statutory homeless. In 2011/12, we aim to keep that number low by helping more people to stay in their existing homes or by assisting them in other ways to secure accommodation.

We have re-commissioned Shelter to continue to provide an independent housing advice service at Templars Square on a Tuesday, and at St Aldates Chambers on a Thursday (drop-in sessions in the mornings), both of which continue to be well attended.

We have introduced the enhanced housing options approach to our work, which means that we now aim to look more holistically at our customers' needs, and help them into education, employment or training, as the best way of widening their housing choices and preventing homelessness in the future. We have now distributed around 6,000 copies of our On Your FEET guide to work and training options, and have also developed a referral agreement with Oxford Citizens Advice Bureau for customers needing debt and money management advice.

Homelessness claims and acceptances


 

Rough Sleeping & Single Homelessness

The number of people recorded as sleeping rough in the city has reduced over the long term but this remains an ongoing issue. In January 2011 16 people were counted sleeping rough against 52 in 1998. This is however above our target of 6, and is partly a reflection of the economic downturn.

We work closely with various agencies to achieve our target, including Thames Valley Police and frontline hostel providers. An example of some of the work being undertaken is the Old Fire Station Project. Work on this project has been on-going throughout 2010/11. More information on this project can be found on our Old Fire Station Redevelopment page.

Rough sleeper count
 

Allocations

Over the last year, 700 households were housed through the Choice-Based Lettings scheme and allocated new tenancies in Oxford by the Council and our partner Housing Associations.  Almost two-thirds of the households were allocated flats or maisonettes and around a third of the households were allocated houses. Over half of the households housed were families; 213 were allocated two-bedroom properties, 122 three-bedroom properties, 10 four-bedroom properties and two were allocated five-bedroom properties.
 
Over the past year, we assisted 173 new Council tenants by furnishing their new homes to help them settle in.  The cost of this service is recovered through additional rental charges for the following five years on those properties furnished.

To help meet the very high demand for housing across the City almost 150 new properties were built in Oxford last year and allocated to households in housing need, including 38 newly built homes by the Council in Rose Hill.  The Council also helped to make 35 more properties available to let to families in need, by assisting existing 'under-occupying' tenants in two, three and four-bedroom properties to move and downsize to smaller more suitable properties through the Removal Incentive Scheme. The empty properties were then allocated to a family in housing need.

Number of properties allocated
 


Properties allocated in 2010/11: Breakdown Houses - Flats
 

Housing Register

The number of applicants applying to be included on the Housing Register has continued to increase, with many more people applying to us for housing each year than we can possibly help.  In 2010/11, we received over 2,000 new applications to join the list.

In March 2011 there were 6,043 households on our waiting list - 4,517 on the general register and 1,526 on the transfer register.

The newly formed assessment and support team processes post and emails received into the department. We received 6950 items between June 2010 and March 2011. The information provided has been used to ensure that the housing register is kept up to date.

The team also deals with telephone calls into the Housing Needs team. In the last year, the team handled about 50,000 telephone enquiries.

New Affordable Homes

A total of 148 new affordable homes (social rented and shared ownership) were developed in Oxford during 2010/11. This was below the council's target of 180 affordable homes, mainly because the completion of some units slipped into 2011/12 due to unforeseen circumstances.

In 2011/12 we expect around 50 new affordable homes to be completed. With regard to the current economic climate we are working closely with partners to take forward as many schemes as possible.

New affordable homes

Past Performance

• Community Housing Performance 2007/08 (77kB PDF)
• Community Housing Performance 2008/09 (29kB PDF)
• Community Housing Performance 2009/10 (32 kB PDF)

Page last reviewed 20 June 2011