Luton is a 'magnet for homelessness' says top council official

Luton borough is “a magnet” for the homeless – and this has been the reality for the past century, a meeting heard.

And last week someone seeking housing, who had been out of the country for 14 years and didn’t have the funding to pay rent, had to be removed from the town hall by police after refusing to leave.

The council was unable to house them, and instead gave them advice, LBC’s service director for housing Colin Moone told the council’s overview and scrutiny board.

He was responding to a question from Labour Farley councillor Mahmood Hussain during a report about the council’s corporate performance during quarter one of 2022/23.

Councillor Hussain referred to homelessness among young families being on the increase, asking: “What are we doing in prevention terms, as in light of the cost of living increase, it’ll be more likely we get a larger demand? It’ll be feeding the kids or paying the rent.”

Mr Moone replied: “We haven’t evicted someone from council tenancies for a long time. There are some households in temporary accommodation who break their licence agreements and who we may have to evict for all sorts of reasons. There’s a process we follow when dealing with that.

“We had 443 homeless households approach us, as at the end of August. In July we had 450 approaching us. They’re not just single people. They’re families as well.

“Last year, we had more than 4,000 households. This year, if the trajectory stays the same, we’ll have over 5,000. Our prevention figures are on target.

“We still have 1,079 in temporary accommodation,” he explained. “We’re reducing this. There’s been a slight blip during the last three months, but we’ll manage that.

“So there’s much footfall, with the majority evicted from the private sector or parental exclusions.

“We can’t stop homeless households approaching us. This borough is a magnet for homelessness. It’s just a reality over the last 100 years.

“And that’s why temporary accommodation is so high. We’re trying to do something about that. Yesterday, someone came to us who’d been out of the country for 14 years.

“We couldn’t help them because they had no recourse to public fund, and we had to get the police to remove them from reception because they wouldn’t leave.

“We gave them advice, but we can’t help someone with no recourse because they can’t pay their rent. It’s a difficult situation. We’re faced with this every day.”

Councillor Hussain added: “There was a protocol between housing and children’s services which were to work closely together.

“But there were at least one or two occasions where I saw officers arguing with each other, saying: ‘It’s not housing. It’s children services’. And children’s services replying: ‘No, it’s housing’.

“Whichever budget the money is coming from, it’s the council’s. Have we got that protocol? Is it working?”

Mr Moone said: “It’s working and it’s in place. Sometimes we may have those disputes and conversations. But we’re not standing up in the office fighting each other.”