Our Homelessness Strategy and action plan 'Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Together' set out what needed to be done to prevent and address homelessness in York over the 5 years, from 2018 to 2023.
A new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy is currently being developed. We held a Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024 to 2029 consultation, which closed on 15 November 2024.
Our strategy:
- has been developed with the help of the York Homelessness Forum, a body made up of several statutory and voluntary agencies working to prevent and tackle homelessness in York
- builds upon the achievements of the 2013 to 2018 strategy
- focuses on prevention, early intervention and local integrated services that step in when things go wrong
- implements the new Homeless Reduction Act 2017
Our Housing Options Team and partner agencies provide a whole range of services, such as:
- advice to households who find themselves in a housing crisis
- intervening to prevent homelessness
- managing homeless applications
View our Housing Scrutiny, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Report.
Homelessness statistics
A range of statistics are used to inform our Homelessness Strategy.
Prevention figures
Prevention figures represent the number of households that we or other advice and support agencies prevented from becoming homeless, by helping them stay in their current home or helping them find alternative accommodation.
Homelessness figures
Homelessness figures are official government statistics, which we collect every 3 months. They show the number of households which have formally presented to us as homeless and have been assessed under the legal criteria (Part 7 Housing Act 1996).
The 'accepted homeless' figure shows the number of households we had a duty to house. That is, those who:
- were eligible
- were in priority need
- were unintentionally homeless
- had a local connection
Temporary accommodation figures
This is the number of households on a particular date (usually at the end of March, June, September and December) in temporary accommodation.
Temporary accommodation is generally a hostel, a non-secure tenancy and sometimes a bed and breakfast.
Households are placed in temporary accommodation if they meet the criteria (eligible, homeless, believed to be in priority need) while their case is investigated and a formal decision made. If 'accepted homeless', they will remain in temporary accommodation until they can move into permanent accommodation.
Rough sleeping figures
Rough sleepers are people who do not have any accommodation and sleep out 'under the stars' or in temporary shelter such as bus stops and sheds.
Access information on our performance around the prevention of homelessness and our achievements in tackling homelessness on GOV.UK: Dashboards on homelessness.