New Housing Bill to help the homeless

The Welsh government has released a new Housing Bill and combatting homelessness is one of its top priorities.

The streets of Cardiff are only getting colder. Image provided by davitydave

Concern for those who will be sleeping on the streets this Christmas has been heightened by recent extreme cold weather warnings, but the new Housing Bill intends to ensure everyone in Wales has access to a decent home.

The @welshlabour housing Bill will address the 15,360 households presented as homeless last year #makingadifference pic.twitter.com/x8sxsIfZSk

— Welsh Labour (@WelshLabour) November 18, 2013

This change will not come fast enough. A spokesperson for Housing Minister Carl Sargeant explained the bill is still in the working stages so, “It certainly wouldn’t be in place in order to help people who are facing homelessness this winter.”

While the new Housing Bill is definitely a step in the right direction, one can’t help but wish it had been enacted just a little bit earlier.

If you’d like to read the Housing Bill in its entirety, have a look here

Though the bill may not have the desired effects this Christmas season, it does look promising in the long term, it takes forward proposals set out in the Housing White Paper “Homes for Wales” in 2012.

It promises to make a difference to people in Wales by:

1. Helping people access a decent, affordable home and ensuring those at risk of becoming homeless receive the help they need

2. Raising standards in the private rented sector and placing a greater emphasis on action to prevent people from becoming homeless

3. Providing local authorities with the power to introduce, should they wish to do so, an increased rate of council tax on long term empty homes.

4. Placing a duty on local authorities to provide sites for Gypsy and Traveller communities where a need has been identified.

5. Assisting the expansion of co-operative housing as another way of increasing the supply of affordable homes.

6. Setting standards for those local authorities that retain their housing stock on rents, services charges and quality of accommodation and supporting the achievement of the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

7. Abolishing the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy system to enable stock retaining local authorities to become self-financing.

Feature image provided by Tim Norris