New homelessness strategy set to be approved
Monday, June 09, 2025
A new plan to support those at risk of or experiencing homelessness is set to be agreed by Wakefield Council’s key decision makers at their meeting next week.
The aim of the Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 – 2030 is working together to make homelessness everyone's business, to create a future where homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring.
“Like many other councils, we have experienced an increased demand for our homelessness services.
“We recognise that we cannot tackle this issue alone. The new strategy focuses on prevention and intervention at the earliest stage. Working with partners, our aim is to prevent households from becoming homeless in the first place. Avoiding the need for temporary accommodation or making the stay as brief as possible.
“It also acknowledges the increasing number of people rough sleeping in the district. We want to make sure that the right services are in place to respond to people’s needs. We are keen for the response to homelessness and rough sleeping to be informed by those who have lived it.”
Cllr Daniel Wilton
Cabinet Member for Communities
In the last year, the Council has seen a 38% reduction overall in the use of temporary accommodation, from a high point of 385 in March 2024 to 269 in February 2025.
This includes an 84% reduction in hotel accommodation from 95 households on 1 April 2024 to 15 households in February 2025. This has helped the Council save more than £1million.
In 2023/24, the district performed better than the region on prevention, with 59% of all households at risk of homelessness having this resolved, compared to 55% regionally.
In the first quarter of 2024/25, there was a noticeable improvement, with 37% having their homelessness relieved within 56 days, compared to 34% in the region.
This has been achieved through more partnership working, increased staff training and improved management oversight. And a more robust approach to applications and investigations.
The Council has also been working to ensure people have a clearer understanding of their realistic housing options, so they can make informed decisions. And developed a private rented sector access scheme that has been successful in making the private rented sector a more realistic option for those experiencing homelessness.
The Homelessness Act 2002 places a statutory duty on housing authorities to publish a new homelessness strategy, based on the results of a homelessness review, every five years.
Cabinet will meet on Tuesday 17 June at 10.30am. The meeting can be watched live or later on the Council’s website.