Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan
West Lothian Council and partners have drafted the first Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) for West Lothian. This is a document which we are required to produce for the Scottish Government and which demonstrates that we have identified the main homeless issues in West Lothian .
The main challenge in West Lothian is increasing demand from households presenting as homeless for social rented housing against available supply to provide a settled housing solution. This has resulted in an increase in the use of Bed and Breakfast Accommodation to meet the council's statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation along with longer stays in temporary accommodation while households wait an offer for a suitable social rented tenancy.
The RRTP sets out our strategy for reducing homelessness through a rapid rehousing transition process.
An essential part of the process is establishing the issues and priorities through consulting with our stakeholders. The consultation has now ended.
The plan sets out the context of homelessness in West Lothian, the vision for the partnership underpinned by the following 4 high level actions and a detailed action plan.
The high level actions are:
- Increase focus on early intervention, prevention and housing options to stop homelessness happening in the first place
- Improving access to affordable housing options and reducing lengths of stay in temporary accommodation by improving flow through the system diverting away from the use of Bed and Breakfast Accommodation
- Ensure where homelessness does occur that housing options are focused on enabling households to navigate through the system as quickly as possible
- Implement actions required to ensure people have access to the required levels of support.
Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan Update
These annual updates provide a review of the key factors impacting on homelessness locally, an update on the key statistics for each year, and undertakes analysis of comparisons with previous years.
