Homeless applications for housing fall

Homeless applications to the council’s housing department have fallen during the past year.

The number of applications was down from 89 to 78 between March 2019 and the same time this year.

This fall was due to “preventative work” done by the housing service, according to executive manager Anita Jamieson.                                       

Ms Jamieson noted the reduction in her report presented to councillors at Tuesday’s remote development committee meeting, which was due to this preventative work and “the priority given to finding permanent housing solutions”.

Development committee chairman Alastair Cooper highlighted that homeless applications had “reduced very slightly” in this time, which was the result of an “awful lot of effort” the department had done to “assist folk before they become homeless”.

Mr Cooper said he was also aware of the effort the Scottish government was putting into reducing homelessness.

He said one of the issues that Shetland had was a “lack of suitable housing”, with the chairman asking Ms Jamieson if the housing service was still pursuing prevention.

Ms Jamieson responded to say that “prevention and early intervention to help folk find solutions” was “very much” still the case and that they were also keen to get people into suitable accommodation quickly.

This meant “folk are not going through a homeless route”, she said.