There is “real misery and despair” behind West Lothian Council housing department performance figures, a senior SNP councillor has claimed.
Depute SNP group leader Councillor Robert De Bold pointed to a fall in the percentage of homeless applications being assessed in 28 days from 90 per cent to “less than 50 per cent”.
His criticism of performance came as housing officers revealed a surge in spending on homeless service costs to more than £688,000, in the last financial quarter of 2021/22.
The percentage in assessments completed with a 28 day time frame fell from 80.23 per cent in the first quarter of last year (April to June ) to 48.29 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
Councillor De Bold told the meeting of the Housing Services Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel (PDSP): “This matches with my own experience of constituency work, and my colleagues. Of all indicators here this one has the most direct human impact.
“There is real misery and despair caused by our current inability to assess applications as quickly as we could. We have numerous individuals, numerous families, who are passed from hotel to bed and breakfast on an alternately daily basis, very often where these places are located are not even within West Lothian.
“I would ask the Administration to treat this as a priority to try to rectify this situation as quickly as possible.”
Chairing the PDSP Labour’s Councillor George Paul said: “The Administration does treat it as a priority. To say otherwise would not be conducive to helping homeless people.”
Accompanying notes in the reports said: “A review of processes is being considered across the services to increase efficiencies and make better use of our current systems.”
And for the final quarter of the last financial year- January to April 2022- the notes painted a picture of staff shortages: “This has been a result of a number of long term sickness within the team coupled with other staff either leaving the council or moving onto other posts within the council. This has resulted in officers having to take on additional duties which has impacted on their case management.”
The report added: “Recruitment has been ongoing and staffing levels are slowly beginning to increase and it is hoped that the team will reach full capacity by the start of the next quarter. Refresher training has been provided to the team as part of the improvement plan. As capacity increases within the team it will allow officers to refocus on their case management and performance moving forward.”
On tackling homeless service costs, the Performance Report said: “The increased costs in property is a result of a higher number of applicants who require goods storage, and who are then staying longer in temporary accommodation.
“The spending on homeless service costs has dropped back below £200,000 in the first quarter of 2022/23.
“The service is considering the option of providing unfurnished temporary accommodation to reduce property and furniture costs along with charging or removing school transport; however this will require a change in policy and is not likely to be seen if approved until 2022/23.”
In October last year the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported West Lothian had the second highest number of homeless presentations in Scotland.
Don't miss the latest news from the West Lothian Courier. Sign up to our free newsletter here
