Our Homelessness Strategy and action plan 'Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Together' sets out what needs to be done to prevent and address homelessness in York over the next 5 years, from 2018 to 2023.
Our strategy:
- has been developed with the help of the York Homelessness Forum, a body made up of several statutory and voluntary agencies working to prevent and tackle homelessness in York
- builds upon the achievements of the 2013 to 2018 strategy
- focuses on prevention, early intervention and local integrated services that step in when things go wrong
- implements the new Homeless Reduction Act 2017
Our Homelessness action plan was drafted in April 2018 and will be reviewed in October 2020, when future commitments will be agreed.
Homelessness statistics
Our Housing Options Team and partner agencies provide a whole range of services, such as:
- advice to households who find themselves in a housing crisis
- intervening to prevent homelessness
- managing homeless applications
Download our annual homeless review report, which provides a complete breakdown of homelessness statistics and reports on the work we've completed during the year to tackle homelessness in the city, and helps us monitor our performance.
Our homelessness performance reports summarise significant achievements delivered by homelessness services each year.
Prevention figures
Prevention figures represent the number of households that we (or other advice and support agencies) prevented from becoming homeless, by helping them stay in their current home or helping them find alternative accommodation.
Homelessness figures
Homelessness figures are official government statistics, which we collect every 3 months. They show the number of households which have formally presented to us as homeless and have been assessed under the legal criteria (Part 7 Housing Act 1996).
The 'accepted homeless' figure shows the number of households we had a duty to house. That is, those who were eligible, in priority need, were unintentionally homeless and had a local connection.
Temporary accommodation figures
This is the number of households on a particular date (usually at the end of March, June, September and December) in temporary accommodation. Temporary accommodation is generally a hostel, a non-secure tenancy and sometimes a bed and breakfast. Households are placed in temporary accommodation if they meet the criteria (eligible, homeless, believed to be in priority need) while their case is investigated and a formal decision made. If 'accepted homeless', they will remain in temporary accommodation until they can move into permanent accommodation.
Rough sleeping figures
Rough sleepers are people who do not have any accommodation and sleep out 'under the stars' or in temporary shelter such as bus stops and sheds. The Salvation Army carries out regular early morning street walks to find rough sleepers and help them find accommodation. If you see any rough sleepers, contact the Salvation Army on telephone: 07586 570432.
We now submit an annual figure to central government giving the number of rough sleepers on a certain night. This provides a single night snapshot of the number of rough sleepers in York.
Housing register
North Yorkshire Home Choice is a housing register based across York and North Yorkshire (excluding Harrogate Borough Council). Find out more about how we allocate council homes using our housing register.