A council is looking to work with more private landlords to help reduce homelessness.
Over the past few years Shropshire council has seen an increase in households seeking housing assistance, and now wants private landlords to make contact if they think they could offer a tenancy to those in need.
The council blames the cost-of-living crisis and, more recently, Ukrainian host placements ending for the shortage of housing - but it doesn’t mention policies that have disincentivised landlords to stay in the sector.
The council says the consequences of not providing suitable accommodation for homeless single people would mean individuals remaining in wholly unsuitable provision such as B&B type accommodation.
In Shropshire the number of homeless people in B&B can fluctuate day to day. Currently, the council has around 100 people in B&B at a collective cost of £6,125 per night, so 100 individuals would cost the council approximately £190,000 per month, or £2.3 million per annum.
The council claims it is keen to avoid the need to use temporary accommodation as much as possible, and wants to discuss options for more settled accommodation with private sector landlords.
Landlords will be offered cash incentives and extensive support for them and their tenants, in exchange for letting to residents who are at risk of homelessness or who are ready to move on from homelessness services and live independently.
Support includes:-
- financial help to pay towards deposits and rent in advance, which is paid to landlords directly;
- tenants support and advice to help ensure that tenancies are sustainable;
- providing specialist advice on tenancy matters and changes in the law;
- help to resolve disputes if they arise;
- providing a named point of contact from the start.
A council spokesperson says: “Facing homelessness is a worrying experience for anyone, so we’re appealing to private sector landlords so we can continue to offer vital housing support to those most vulnerable.
“We can offer support for landlords to help house households who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Currently, all types of accommodation are needed.
“You could be an experienced landlord with a portfolio of properties and just looking for tenants, in which case, we can offer a tenant matching service where we will interview and assess all tenants before they approach you. Or you may be a first-time landlord, and benefit from extra support our team can give with setting up the tenancy and handling all the paperwork.
“If you are unsure if your property will be suitable, please contact us to discuss; and if you are a landlord who uses a letting agent and would like to help, please let us know and our team can speak to the agent directly.
“Homelessness can affect anyone. We work with people who have been in the military, worked in trades and many other occupations, have been evicted from their home through no fault of their own, or in some cases are fleeing from domestic abuse.
"While not every person we engage with accepts our support, the vast majority do, and we continue to work with a wide range of partners to help prevent people becoming homeless, and to support those who do to find their way back into accommodation and work.
“I’d encourage anyone who has a suitable and affordable vacant property who would be interested, to get in touch and speak to the team.”
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They need to define affordable.
Do they mean LHA or do they mean cheapest 30% of available properties?
There's probably about £150 to £500 a month difference depending on the size of the property.
If they are going to support people by bridging the gap between LHA and reality with ongoing DHPs they need to clearly say so.
There is a general shortage of rental properties and landlords usually have multiple applicants willing to pay market rent. However, there are some properties that are a bit harder than others to let. One of mine is a great flat but has awful access and no parking. I've let it via a Council scheme for just over 4 years. My main criteria when I first approached the Council was I didn't want anyone who would whine about the lack of parking (like the previous tenants did). They found someone who couldn't drive. The flat is in the main shopping street in the town centre so it's the perfect location for a non driver.
To high rents that drive people away and perhaps not worth the rent that asked for.
So the Councils caused all those housing problems and still causing them, now they would like landlords help to solve the crisis, happy to oblige just scrap the 2015 De-Regulation Act. Scrap Section 24. Scrap TRRB. Reinstate Section 21 fully,
now that was easy you didn’t have to lift a finger, otherwise when you are analysing the crisis take a good look in the mirror..
Absolutely correct
It's simple, effective and doable. Nobody is going to invest in BTL when you can get 6/7/8/9 % interest without the hassles. This government has a self created housing crisis and it will not end till section 24 is reversed.
😂 The penny has finally dropped with this council as their coffer’s are being drained 🥵💰🥵💰. Well if I lived in that county they could whistle.
I know, let’s issue some really pointless and expensive licences, threaten Landlords with a £30k fine if they don’t comply. Let’s put all the blame on Landlords with mould problems and threaten them with another huge fine. When one of our introduced tenants defaults (which they will) let’s walk away and offer no help to the Landlord. Hmmm, how can we entice Landlords to come to us.?
Just before the covid lock down I had evicted a tenant from hell and the property needed a full refurbishment as a resultof the damage caused. Then lockdown ocurred just as we were about to start work. So for 2 years it stood empty as a result. Our local council in their wisdom doubled our council tax and when I appealed on the grounds that it was unavoidable due to covid they just replied with the rules are rules excuse. Now they are begging to rent my other properties to house their homeless and I returned the favour by telling them to bog off. There was a silver lining though. The value of the property increased considerably over the 2 years and covered all of the expenses and more that occurred due to it being empty.
The councils are run by morons, I deal with a lot of them as part of my job 😧 hard work is an understatement ! Most could never get a job anywhere else.
I have a property empty since June. I am giving it a lick of paint and dealing with some damp etc. Evicted tenant's stuff still in there! But I don't care as their was mortgage chaos last year so I am just waiting to put it on the market. Now feels about right.
Was this just one tenant then.
Sandra. It is amazing how much damage a tenant can do especially when they don't think they need your permission to rip out ventilation systems so the neighbours don't smell the cannabis plants in the attic tear out fixtures and carpets and decide to dig up the landscaped garden and plants to turn it into an adventure playground for their little rats.
That what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you.
Maybe the housing charities could home a few? we as landlords are not charities, never touch anyone that might be the least bit vulnerable as these are the ones that will be trouble
You mean like the Churches ⛪️ do 🤔🤔🤷♂️🤷♂️ Oh wait a minute 😂😂
Alas, the trust has gone. Too many stories of landlords agreeing to a scheme then being abandoned once difficulties arise. Councils just seem to want their problem tenants to become our problem tenants - like a massive game of ‘bait and switch’.
Their arrogance and ignorance knows no bounds. They chastise landlords at every turn, are always on the tenants side and say they they’ll support landlords. I would rather deal with the devil than councils!
You made your bed .. you lie in it!!
Chat to Shelter, the go to name for homelessness that have probably never built a home ever. With income of over £ 72 million a year it’s a damn expensive advice centre.
REMEMBER: Those who sup with the devil need a long spoon.😉
So earlier this week it was landlords are not selling to the end of the week and landlords we are desperate…?!?
This article suggests we should 'trust councils'. How absurd can this get!
Stands to reason that landlords like to play the victims and I should know as my ex landlords are scumbags.
Sandra, your ex-landlords are on their knees . . . praying their thanks for not having you as a moaning tenant.
SRB - What's your current landlord like?
Sandra I would love to hear from your ex landlords to hear their side
Trust a council or a council employee? you must be joking never in a thousand years
Still as human as ever Nick hah
Whinge, whinge, whinge, whinge. I wonder what your ex-landlords would say about you, Sandra?
You can kiss my ..... I pay your benefits. You should be thankful.
OK if the tenants look after the property will the Council's pay for the damages there are 2 sides to this and are the Council's wanting to house British people or asylum seekers just being blunt
Oh the irony
Local authorities have mismanaged Adult Social Care and Children's Services which represent 70% of their budgets ,have overstaffed themselves and engaged in wokery and incompetence.
As a result 122 of them are insolvent.
At District and Borough level there is also wokery and incompetence plus economic illiteracy.
This manifests itself in attacks on landlords in the form of gross unfairness and unwarranted charges.
As a result landlords flee to better returns and tenants who ought to know better abuse the system and damage their own credit ratings.
The result in the absence of Systems building and the creation of hostels will result in a new class of homeless people living in tents,cars and homeless squats.
Shropshire County Council has chutzpah when it asks landlords to dig it out of a hole of its own making.
Sadly it will all end in tears as we are as a country overpopulated to the tune of 45 million people and are 17 million houses short.
Sadly ,nothing will be done given a new build rate of 150,000 houses a year which means that on present form and assuming no population increase we would see no breakthrough to a solution within the next 100 years barring a calamity to reduce population numbers
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