OXFORD City Council’s homelessness service has been commended by the Government.

Staff from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Homelessness Advice and Support Team (HAST) visited the council’s Housing Needs team earlier this month and praised the service for an 'embedded ethos' of providing support and preventing homelessness.

HAST’s focus is on how councils are implementing new duties in the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 to prevent and relieve homelessness.

Oxford Mail:

In the first year of the new act the council successfully prevented or relieved homelessness for 458 of the 651 households it owed a duty to.

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Linda Smith, the council's cabinet member for housing, said: “People sometimes assume that homelessness means people sleeping rough.

"That’s understandable as someone in a sleeping bag in a shop doorway is much more obvious than a family facing eviction because they can’t afford to put food on the table and pay the rent. But it’s very far from being the case.

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"Homelessness prevention means so much more than providing temporary accommodation or emergency shelter.”

Email housingneeds@oxford.gov.uk.