Issue - meetings

This item was chaired by Councillor Thittala Varkey.

Matter for Decision

The report detailed the annual bid round for grants made to organisations providing homelessness prevention services.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Housing

i.               Approved the award of homelessness prevention grants to voluntary and community organisations for 2023-24, as set out in Appendix 1 of the officer’s report.

ii.             Approve that funding from this grant programme is set aside so that a procurement exercise can be opened for a three-year contract for winter accommodation for rough sleepers, beginning from the winter of 2023-24.

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 Housing Services Manager said the following in response to the Committee’s questions:

      i.         There were two reasons why the grant award to Cambridge Women’s Aid was lower compared to other organisations. The first was that the grant funding ideally needed to focus on preventing homelessness and the second was due to the introduction of the County wide domestic abuse service. It was felt there could be an element of double grant funding. This was a difficult decision to make.  

    ii.         The Council were fortunate as they had been able to use reasonably priced education accommodation for homeless people during the winter period. A longer-term accommodation solution was required, and the council was looking at carrying out a procurement process to have a 3-year contract with an organisation to provide such accommodation.

   iii.         The length of time grant funding would cover would be looked at as it was noted that there were benefits to providing grant funding annually, but it also provided more certainty to organisations if funding was guaranteed for a longer period of time (for example over a 3-year period).

  iv.         A small amount of grant funding was not allocated at this stage so that it could be used for unforeseen events during the year. For example, during the extremely hot weather in July 2022 some severe weather emergency provision was required and was funded from the funding which was not allocated.

The Committee resolved by 7 votes in favour to 0 against and 1 abstention to endorse the recommendations.

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.

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

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.