Council monitoring impact of pandemic as councillors raise concerns over possibility of families being made homeless

More families will lose homes because of the effects of the pandemic on the local economy, according to a council’s director of communities.

Nicola Stubbins, Corporate Director for Communities and Statutory Director for Social Services,  said she is “very, very concerned” about being able to meet the demand from families made homeless by the pandemic in the future.

She was responding to a question from Denbighshire county councillor Merfyn Parry (Llandyrnog ward) at Thursday’s communities scrutiny committee meeting.

Cllr Parry asked how the council was going to manage and safeguard the education of children whose families could become homeless, due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.

He added: “Has there been an increase in homelessness already in Denbighshire?”

Ms Stubbins said: “I think there will be issues in future.

“I think the whole impact on the economy will have longer term ramifications on people’s ability to maintain their housing provision.

“That’s something as a corporate body we are all very, very concerned about, across a number of departments, about how we ensure that the offer that we have is fit for purpose – not only for now but in the future.”

Ms Stubbins said she wasn’t sure over the last few months if there had been “any issues of concern in relation to providing appropriate housing” for those families presenting as homeless.

She added: “We have had increases in presentations of households.
“There have been some increases of presentations of families with children but we have met our statutory duties.
“I can assure you that our homeless team work very, very closely with children’s services and always have done.
“The interaction with these families, whether known to children’s services or not known, supports to ensure continuation of education is always considered as well.”

She said the process had been in place for “many, many years and works very, very well”.

However she issued the warning about what would happen in the months to come and said they were in discussions with Welsh Government about their future “statutory duty” towards homelessness.

She said “recovery reports” on both housing and homelessness would be discussed at next week’s partnership scrutiny meeting.

By Jez Hemming – Local Democracy Reporter