Hundreds of Bristolians have told the local authority what they think should be done to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the city.
Nearly 700 people answered Bristol City Council’s call for feedback on its draft five-year strategy to address the issue.
And many left comments with suggestions of their own, some of which would require law changes by central government.
A number wanted to see more done to tackle “unreasonable rents” charged by private landlords, according to a presentation due to be heard by the Bristol Homes Board next week.
Others called for the conversion of empty business buildings into affordable accommodation.
Some told the council they wanted it to build more council houses, stop “right to buy”, and prevent developers from excluding affordable housing from new housing projects.
Responding to the comments, Bristol-based renters’ union Acorn called on central government to review local housing allowance rates and bring in law changes to address the power imbalance between private landlords and tenants.
Union chair Tom Renhard said: “All too often it is easy for a landlord to evict a tenant who is challenging squalid conditions and really just wants to live in a home fit for human habitation.
“No-fault evictions, also known as section 21, must be scrapped with longer and more secure tenancies brought in.
“Options, including rent freezes, or other forms of rent controls, also need to be on the table.”
Mr Renhard also called for “far-reaching” reforms to planning policies to close a loophole that allows developers to get around requirements to provide affordable housing.
“We have seen rapid increases in the numbers of people who are homeless, either rough sleeping, living in temporary accommodation, sofa surfing or experiencing other forms of homelessness," he said.
“This is having a hugely detrimental impact on many communities, bringing more and more people to breaking point."
The public consultation on the council’s draft Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-24 ran from April 8 to May 27.
As at May 28, the council had received 330 full responses and 365 partial responses.
There was strong support for the strategy’s top five priorities: to tackle rough sleeping; prevention and early intervention; improve health and wellbeing and supporting people to build better lives; deliver equality, diversity and inclusion; and work in partnership.
“Prevention and early intervention” was especially popular, with 83 per cent strongly agreeing and another 12 per cent agreeing that this should be a priority.
The most popular actions to take forward were:
- Provide more move-on accommodation for people sleeping rough (182 responses)
- Reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation through prevention and a range of more affordable housing options (166 responses)
- Increase the supply of affordable homes, and ensure that the right homes are delivered to meet people’s housing needs (164 responses)
- Build on existing links with health services (145 responses)
- Review and where needed change the range of supported accommodation options available (100 responses).
The Bristol Homes Board will consider the findings of the public consultation on June 20.
But it will be several months before the council approves the final strategy that will guide the city's response to homelessness and rough sleeping for the next five years.
The recently launched One City Plan has the ambitious target of every single citizen in Bristol living in a home that meets their needs by 2050.
This strategy is seen as the first step in meeting that goal by preventing people from becoming homeless and ending rough sleeping.
