A FIVE-year plan to prevent and relieve homelessness and end rough sleeping in Harlow has been approved by Harlow Council’s Cabinet with several actions agreed.

At last night’s (Wednesday 19 March) Cabinet meeting, a new approach to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping was approved as part of an updated plan for 2025-2030. The framework, which the council must review every 5 years by law, sets out how the council will tackle homelessness in Harlow with partnership working being at the very heart of it.

The plan highlights priorities to increase homelessness prevention work, eliminate rough sleeping completely and improve access to suitable accommodation and support.

The approval follows public consultation on the council’s plans. During the consultation, 90% of respondents agreed with the plan’s priorities. The new approach comes into effect on 1 April 2025.

The council will now work to establish an annual delivery plan, which aims to deliver the new objectives. This will be achieved in a number of ways; by working with organisations to ensure that all parties use the opportunities available to identify people at risk from homelessness, by ensuring that the homelessness referral process is easy to use and understand, maintaining housing options for those in need and working with the private rented sector to secure accommodation where appropriate.

Also feeding into the plan is the delivery of new affordable housing in Harlow, including the ‘Solohaus’ development in Lower Meadow, which provides high-quality temporary housing to support vulnerable Harlow residents facing homelessness. The council hopes that this will be the first of many such specialist schemes in the town.

The new plan will strengthen partnerships the council already has in place to deliver services to homeless people and also its work to access accommodation in the private rented sector, improved services for domestic abuse survivors, and changes it has made to the Housing Allocations Policy to focus on local homes for local people.

Councillor David Carter, cabinet portfolio holder for housing, said:

“We want to see an end to rough sleeping in Harlow, and I am pleased that this vital plan of action has been agreed. Tackling the issue of homelessness and rough sleeping is part of our mission to transform Harlow’s housing; an issue like this is not an easy one to overcome but we have already achieved so much.

“We’ve put a policy in place to ensure homeless households are given due priority, we’ve worked to ensure the quota scheme is targeted at the right organisations to have local impact and supporting local people, and we have provided Bromley Cottages and ongoing support for Streets2Homes in managing rough sleeping numbers, so fewer people end up on the streets. Most recently, new Solohaus homes in Lower Meadow have been handed over to Streets2Homes, which are designed specifically to support and protect Harlow residents who are at risk of homelessness.

“This plan shows that we have a robust 5-year plan to ensure we are able to meet the ongoing challenges that achieving our mission to transform Harlow’s housing faces, from cost of living to the lack of support services to refer to, which would help prevent homelessness.”

You can read Harlow Council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy here.