The Homelessness Act 2002 requires all local housing authorities to carry out a review of homelessness every five years and to use the findings to publish a strategy setting out how it will prevent and reduce homelessness and provide support to those affected by it.

During the lifetime of our previous Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy (2020-2025), we have achieved many positive outcomes including;

the launch of a new Homelessness Hub;
the creation of 74 new bed spaces through various rough sleeping programmes;
the implementation of the Changing Futures programme for people with complex needs;
a range of new measures to improve access to the private-rented sector;
the introduction of a Pre-Eviction Protocol within supported housing providers;
the commission of the new Homeless Healthcare Service;
the recruitment of several new specialist members of staff;
and the award of around £20 million of funding for new rough sleeping initiatives.

Despite this, homelessness and rough sleeping have increased both locally and nationally over the past four years due to a number of economic factors.

Through this review, we want to develop new, innovative approaches to preventing and relieving homelessness in the city, and focus on prevention and support for those at risk of experiencing the most harmful outcomes.

Our key aims are:

To understand the current and likely future state of homelessness within Stoke-on-Trent;
To map out the existing and likely future structure around homelessness prevention in the city, including the availability of accommodation and support for those people who may become homeless
To outline the resources available in Stoke-on-Trent which can be used to deliver homelessness prevention services;
To share intelligence gathered from the review to inform the development and delivery of prevention services in the city.

Get Involved

Whether you have personal experience, know someone who has or are just interested in helping us to improve things, we would like to hear your thoughts on homelessness and rough sleeping in the city. You can have your say by filling in the short questionnaire by by clicking the button below.

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Review Questionnaire

All of the feedback will be considered in the development of our next Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy which will be launched next year. You have until Sunday 24 November to submit your comments.

You can read the full review document by clicking the button below.

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Review document

Please note: Non-accessible content

The document above is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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If you require access to any of the tables in this document that appear as images, please contact us and we will endeavour to provide an accessible version of the tables requested. You can do this by contacting victoria.millns@stoke.gov.uk.