Q1 – Why are there still people on the streets?

The number  of  people newly rough sleeping  in the city  continues to remain high and the Council and partners are working extremely hard to support individuals into housing and support services which best meets people’s needs.  For the first time we are starting to see people who are in full time employment bedded down in vehicles due to the spiralling cost of living crisis.  

In the first nine months of this year (January – September) our commissioned outreach service, delivered by Julian House and Bournemouth Churches Housing Association (BCHA) have engaged with 205 individual rough sleepers on the streets of Exeter. 

Whilst there has been a reduction in repeat episodes of rough sleeping we continue to see an increase in people rough sleeping on the streets of Exeter for the first time.

Q2 – What are the main reasons as to why people lose their housing?

For people rough sleeping in Exeter for the first time, there could be a number of reasons why they have lost their accommodation. This includes being unable to keep up with rent payments, coming into the city for a new start, relationship breakdowns and friends and families no longer able to accommodate.  

For repeat episodes of rough sleeping the main reason for people leaving their temporary and supported accommodation are issues of anti-social behaviour  towards staff and/or other residents, unauthorised visitors, substance use  and damage to property. 

Whilst the Council and partners take all reasonable actions to minimise evictions, unfortunately we still have to evict people who are unwilling or unable to follow basic accommodation rules. Nevertheless the council and partners continue to work with people to resolve issues, learn from experience and find alternative options.

Q3 – What happens once someone has been evicted from temporary accommodation or supported accommodation?

Wherever possible the Council and its commissioned services continue to engage with individuals and review what alternative options are available.  It does depend on the reasons why people were evicted in the first instance – serious violence towards staff and other residents cannot be tolerated.  Many people have been repeat opportunities to reflect and learn from issues and incidents.

We have had a number of successes and it sometimes takes people multiple placements until the right solution is found. 

The Council has 15 properties which are used for ‘Housing First’.  This is an approach which originated in the United States and is now being adopted internationally.  It starts at meeting the basic need (housing) and putting a wraparound support package, delivered by Julian House and BCHA, in place to support people to maintain their tenancies and move forward with their lives, using council tenancies we are able to offer a safe, secure and long term home

Q4 – How many people have you accommodated over the past year?

Our Housing Needs service consistently supports homeless and vulnerably housed people in the city.  Single Homelessness is by far the greatest demand on the Housing Needs Service and as of 26^th September 2023, we currently have 150 households in Temporary Accommodation of which 116 are single homeless households. 

Last year the council accommodated 449 households.

Q5 – What support do rough sleepers get?

Exeter City Council commissions Julian House and BCHA to engage with rough sleepers across the city.  This is through early morning outreach and holding accommodation surgeries at Colab.  Outreach provides the initial response engaging with people where they are bedded down.  They provide vital welfare checks, support to engage with healthcare services and work with rough sleepers to identify short and long term housing solutions. 

Throughout the year ECC, St Petrock’s, CoLab Exeter, BCHA, Julian House, Devon Doctors, Together Drug and Alcohol Service, The Exeter Community Food Network and other voluntary services have worked tirelessly to ensure that rough sleepers have access to accommodation, meeting health needs, food as well as other support to help them recover from homelessness.  St Petrocks also provide wider services for rough sleepers including, accommodation, food, benefit support, clothing provision and individualised support and signposting.

Q6 – How much does it cost to come into hostels or supported housing in Exeter?

There are no upfront cost to access any emergency, supported housing in Exeter.  Each household will be supported to make appropriate benefit claims and to claim for housing benefit to pay towards the rent.  There is a small service charge (also known as non-eligible housing benefit) for each resident.  This varies in cost across the projects and is often a contribution towards heating, lighting and the cleaning of communal areas.  For example, at one project the weekly service charge is £19.80.  Service charges also help residents to learn how to budget, as they will be expected to pay towards utilities when living independently. 

Q7 – What plans do you have to support rough sleepers during the winter months?

The Council is working with providers to identify other short term accommodation options for rough sleepers.  This includes identifying further funding to ensure we have an appropriate offer to last until at least the end of March. 

Q8– What has changed over the past year?

Over the past year Exeter City Council has worked with providers across the city to bring on line a number of new services

• Exeter City Council – The Council has been successful in obtaining funding, through the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme and have successfully purchased 20 one bedroom flats. These properties are being used to assist people with a recent history of rough sleeping, to support them off the street, stabilise and recover from their recent period of homelessness.
• Updated Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy – The Council has recently updated its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy - for more information please go to the following link. Our new 5 year strategy Set within the context of current economic and policy challenges the strategy fundamentally proposes five priority work areas with the following key objectives:

1. Ending Rough Sleeping – by end 2024
   • through further tackling “flow” onto the streets with closer working protocols and prevention activities with landlords, prisons, hospitals etc
   • by increasing bespoke supported housing option e.g. housing first, themed peer supported shared housing, crash-pads / respite, host schemes, private rented and social housing
   • by increasing health and treatment interventions and support aiding recovery from mental ill-health and / or harmful substance use
   • Increasing opportunities for positive life changes in education, training and employment
2. Increasing Homelessness Prevention
   • Increasing engagement with community services / partners especially in areas of high deprivation and homelessness risk
   • Pro-active working with partners in early identification of homelessness risk
   • Increased community in-reach including schools, children and family services
3. Progressing Health, Wellbeing & Recovery
   • Increase levels of support to people needing health treatment interventions e.g. substance use, mental and physical ill-health, social care needs
   • Maximising household income, money management and self-sustainability including opportunities in training and employment
   • Building more trauma-sensitive service delivery across all partners
4. Growing Inclusion and Enablement
   • Increasing opportunity for engagement and input from people with lived experience of homelessness in service design and delivery, policy leadership and progressive employment
   • Increasing outreach services to specific vulnerable groups e.g. domestic violence victims and perpetrators, persons with complex and / or multiple need, young persons
   • Widening accessibility for housing advice and homelessness support through diversifying engagement options e.g. in person, online information, digital access and self-assessment and increasing contact / service opening hours
5. Optimising Systems and Partnerships
   • Forming and maintaining multi-agency homelessness partnerships including a strategic homelessness reduction board and management partnerships for ending rough sleeping and integrating treatment and recovery services
   • Aligning strategy and commissioning agendas to increase co-commissioning / multi-disciplinary funding opportunities and joined-up business planning
   • Increasing shared and flexible resources across services including policies, staff and budgets, training etc

• Increase workforce support and development resources to retain knowledge and skills and improve sector stability and resilience
• Exeter City Community Trust (ECCT) – The Council is working in partnership with ECCT to provide 55 units of accommodation across the city. Through a bid submitted to the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme we were able to secure 3 years funding to pay for dedicated housing support, which helps to support people to maintain their tenancies and learn the skills to live independently.
• Julian House – The Council is working in partnership with Julian House to provide 6 additional units of accommodation across the city. Like ECCT the funding was sourced through a bid to the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme and will be used to fund housing support.
• Rough Sleeping Prevention Service – The Council has recently tendered for a new service which brings together the former Outreach service and Housing First Project. The service is being delivered in partnership by Julian House and BCHA and builds on the core pillars of ending rough sleeping through Prevention, Intervention and Recovery.

Q9 – Why are there so many recent reports of anti-social behaviour in and around the city centre and are these caused by homeless people?

The Council is aware of a number of recent complaints about anti-social behaviour in the city centre.  It is important to acknowledge that not all this behaviour is due to people who are homeless or sleeping rough.  Homelessness is an extremely complex and challenging issue that the Council and its partners have to tackle on a daily basis.  People are often presenting with more than one underlying issue or support need aside from housing with mental health now overtaking substance misuse as the primary support need.

Over the past year the Council and its partners, led by the excellent work being carried out by Colab Exeter, have been working closely with statutory partners to deliver additional services to support people with their mental health and addiction.  A new Homelessness mental health support service havs been established called the One Mental Health Team.  Devon County Council Public Health team has also been successful in securing funding through the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Grant and working with Colab and Together have formed the STaR project.

The project provides enhanced support and recovery interventions to people experiencing rough sleeping or living in supported accommodation, who are experiencing substance use challenges.  Despite this support there is a number of people who find it difficult to engage with services and often their addiction and poor mental health can underpin challenging or antisocial behaviour.  The Council continues to work with partners to positively target individuals and proactively support them to engage with appropriate services to tackle their problems. Services themselves also continue to review their offers in order to best tailor support to help meet individual need and choice.

Q10 - How can I help?

You can notify services of a possible rough sleeper in your community by using the online service at StreetLink.

Julian House provides regular city centre, wards and outskirts outreach throughout the week and your report will go directly to their team to investigate and provide help and support as soon as possible.  We have good intelligence about who is rough sleeping within the city centre and are very keen to hear if you think you know of someone bedded down further out from the city centre. 

Q10 – A big thanks from us!

Exeter has lots of amazing volunteers, charities and organisations who support thousands of our most vulnerable citizens across the city throughout the year.  On behalf of Exeter City Council we would like to thank you all for your support, time and