During the quarter April-June 2006, 407 households were prevented from becoming homeless for a minimum of 6 months. The main successful prevention interventions were rehousing through the private rented sector, negotiations and rehousing through the social housing sector.

Private Rented Sector

153 household were prevented as from becoming homeless by being rehoused through the private rented sector, 35 of these interventions are stated as involving the use of a rent deposit type scheme.

Most Local Authorities use the private rented sector to prevent homelessness and the majority of these type of interventions were carried out in Exeter and Plymouth.

The main reasons for homelessness of those households prevented through this intervention were termination of an existing assured shorthold tenancy or parental exclusion.

We are also interested to understand the support needs of the households we are working with to prevent homelessness, for this intervention the main support needs were general lfe skills or mental health. It should be noted that some Local Authorities have not yet started recording the support needs of their customers so this information is limited, we hope to improve this as we start to collect more information. It should also be noted that these are support needs "as percieved" by the housing advice worker.

We have also recorded the numbers of children that households have, out of the households whose homelessness were prevented through the private sector the majority had no children, followed by 1 child. 11 were pregnant.

There was a wide range of ages whose homelessness was prevented through the private rented sector

Interestingly, when looking at the gender of households whose homelessness was prevented through the private sector, the majority were female

Negotiation

78 households were prevented from becoming homeless through negotiation, this includes negotiation with landlords, mediation with parents or other family members using both trained internal staff resources and professional services, it does not include home visits.

Most Local Authorities use negotiation to prevent homelessness and the majority of these type of interventions were carried out in Exeter.

The main reason for the homelessness of those households prevented through this intervention was parental exclusion.

We are also interested to understand the support needs of the households we are working with to prevent homelessness, for this intervention the main support need was general lfe skills. As above, it should be noted that some Local Authorities have not yet started recording the support needs of their customers so this information is limited, we hope to improve this as we start to collect more information. It should also be noted that these are support needs "as percieved" by the housing advice worker.

We have also recorded the numbers of children that households have, out of the households whose homelessness were prevented through negotiation the majority had no children, followed by 1 child. 2 were pregnant.

There was a wide range of ages whose homelessness was prevented through negotiation, however the majority fell in the under 30 category.

When looking at the gender of households whose homelessness was prevented through negotiation there were slightly more females.

Social Housing

46 households were prevented from becoming homeless through social housing, this includes Choice Based Lettings, Local Authority lettings and Housing Association lettings.

Most Local Authorities access social housing to prevent homelessness and the majority of these type of interventions were carried out in Exeter, North and West Devon.

The main reason for the homelessness of those households prevented through this intervention was termination of assured shorthold tenancy or other friends and fmaily exclusion.

We are also interested to understand the support needs of the households we are working with to prevent homelessness, for this intervention the main support need was mental health. As above, it should be noted that some Local Authorities have not yet started recording the support needs of their customers so this information is limited, we hope to improve this as we start to collect more information. It should also be noted that these are support needs "as percieved" by the housing advice worker.

We have also recorded the numbers of children that households have, out of the households whose homelessness were prevented through accessing social housing the majority had no children, followed by 1 child. 1 was pregnant.

There was a wide range of ages whose homelessness was prevented through accessing social housing.

When looking at the gender of households whose homelessness was prevented through accessing social housing there was a much greater balance between males and femailes.

Further Information?

If there is any further information or anaylsis that you would like with regard to this spreadsheet, please get in touch with Katy Shorten.