MORE than 300 households living in the private rented sector have been prevented from becoming homeless thanks to council services in the capital.
The City of Edinburgh Council’s Private Rented Service (PRS) team was established in November 2019 in response to a growing number of homeless presentations from the private rented sector, and since March last year, the team has assisted 324 households.
This has been done by helping them to keep their existing tenancy or to move to either a new private or mid-market rent secure tenancy.
Edinburgh Help to Rent, which is a service the council contracts charity Crisis to deliver, does this by providing rent deposit guarantee bonds. It has provided 50 households with a bond to access properties in the private rented sector since February last year.
This comes as part of a wider update on the council’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP), a comprehensive strategy to tackle and eradicate homelessness across the city over the next five years, which was presented at the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work (HHFW) Committee this month.
Alongside the PRS team, a team has been set up to provide a multi-disciplinary response pilot for council tenants who are struggling to maintain their tenancy or who are falling into rent arrears. This multi-agency approach across the council aims to reach out to tenants who may not engage with their local housing officer, to offer joined-up support and enhanced engagement to help keep the tenant in their home and ultimately avoid becoming homeless.
Councillor Kate Campbell, convener of the HHFW Committee, said: “With the severe pressure on housing in Edinburgh, we need to take every possible step we can to tackle homelessness in our city.
“Preventing 300 households from becoming homeless in a year is phenomenal and it shows the real value of the RRTP supporting innovation and new ways of working.
“This is more important than ever as we start to see the economic repercussions from the pandemic.”
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