Issue - meetings

This item was chaired by Councillor Mike Todd-Jones

Matter for Decision

The report outlined grant funding to organisations providing homelessness prevention services. It provided an overview of the process, eligibility criteria and budget in Section 3 and Appendix 1 of the Officer’s report detailed the applications received with recommendations for 2020-21 awards.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Housing

      i.         Approved the Homelessness Prevention Grants to voluntary, community and statutory organisations for 2020-21, as set out in Appendix 1 of the Officer’s report, subject to the budget approval in February 2020 and any further satisfactory information required of applicant organisations.

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Housing Services Manager.

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

      i.         Requested further information on what level of legal representation the Citizens Advice Bureau were able to provide. The Housing Services Manager undertook to investigate this outside the meeting.

    ii.         Raised concerns that shorter grant fund periods could result in services losing valuable, high skilled workers.

The Housing Services Manager said the following in response to Members’ questions:

      i.         Confirmed that some previous recipients of grants might not receive full support in future in order to allow other services to be supported.

    ii.         Confirmed that Winter Comfort’s application for a full time Drug and Alcohol Worker had been received at a time of uncertainty regarding dual diagnosis services but that the Dual Diagnosis Street Team had subsequently been reformed.

   iii.         Confirmed that where funding was refused the grants team do their best to signpost applicants to other options.

  iv.         Confirmed that applications were assessed on the value they would be adding and the length of time the service would be required. Services also needed to demonstrate that they had looked for or secured funding from other sources.

    v.         Acknowledged that awarding grants for longer periods assisted applicants to secure additional funding from elsewhere.

The Committee resolved (by 7 votes to 0) to endorse the recommendation.

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.