Welsh watchdog warns of short-term solutions contributing to long-term temporary accommodation crisis

The watchdog added that local authorities are focused on managing demand rather than prevention.

The temporary accommodation provided “often isn’t meeting people’s long-term needs”, it said.

Audit Wales noted that temporary accommodation demand had increased almost five-fold in the last decade.

A significant reason for the surge in demand was the Welsh Government’s ‘no-one left out’ approach which was adopted during the pandemic to ensure everyone had access to a safe place to live.

Councils are therefore spending considerable amounts of money providing accommodation for people who are often in crisis.

The report  - Temporary accommodation - long-term crisis? - makes recommendations aimed at improving both the prevention of, and the value for money, of temporary accommodation. These include:

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• defining and evaluating value for money;
• strengthening the planning of homelessness prevention through better use of data; and
• improving partnership working to support prevention.

Auditor General, Adrian Crompton, said “Councils are currently in ‘firefighting’ mode, focussed on dealing with high costs and levels of demand.

“I recognise how challenging it may be to make the shift, but councils need to focus more on prevention and assessing the value for money of temporary accommodation options.

“There’s a risk if this doesn’t happen that short-term solutions will become a long-term crisis both for those experiencing homelessness and for public finances.”

Harry Rodd