Like many councils across the UK, Chelmsford City Council faces rising homelessness and not enough social and affordable housing.
Additionally, the cost of each home for temporary accommodation has been rising, creating huge financial pressures.
Chelmsford’s new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy focuses on what we can control: early intervention, collaborative working and honest public messaging.
Our 2024 consultation to inform the strategy revealed that perception is far from the truth. When most picture a homeless person, they think of a single man sleeping rough. In fact, families with children make up two-thirds of our caseload. Top factors contributing to homelessness are eviction by friends and family, domestic abuse, and no-fault evictions by private landlords. Our officers frequently advise young people who have little idea of how few social homes are available.
Using the survey results as a foundation, we developed an upcoming public campaign. A series of news-site articles and Instagram posts encourage residents to see homelessness not only as rough sleeping, but as complex and preventable.
Rather than judging or waiting until crisis strikes, we are asking people to come to us as soon as they are threatened with homelessness.
While working to create more social homes, we can often help people stay in their homes, when safe and appropriate, through family mediation, landlord engagement and even grants.
No communications campaign can fix a housing shortage – but if we can help more people to avoid the upheaval of emergency accommodation, this campaign will be worthwhile.
Councils must be brave enough to speak clearly and compassionately about what support we can reasonably offer and why early contact matters.
In the current climate, prevention is sometimes the most practical and humane tool we have.