Homelessness and rough sleeping strategy 2026 - 2031: Quick guide
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Our draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy is our plan to help people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless across Wychavon.
The strategy has been jointly developed by Wychavon and our partner councils in Malvern Hills, Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest.
Our vision is to end homelessness and rough sleeping completely. But the issue is complicated and sometimes people will become homeless as a result of things out of their and our control. When homelessness does happen, our aim is to make sure it is short, rare and does not occur again.
The summary on this page explains the key parts of our plan and asks for your views to help us make sure we haven’t missed anything.
Read on to find out more about our plan to end homelessness and rough sleeping then click the link below to have your say. Deadline for responses is Sunday, 24 May 2026.
If you prefer, you can pdf read the draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2026-2031 in full. (1.02 MB)
You can read an accessible version of the draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2026-2031 on on our partner Wyre Forest District Council's website.
You can also view an accessible version of the Shared Homelessness Review 2025 on our partner Wyre Forest District Council's website, which supports the strategy.
Once approved, this strategy will guide our work supporting the thousands of people who seek our help every year.
What we did last time (2022-2025)
Over the past three years, we have worked together with other councils across Worcestershire to make a real difference. Here are some of the main things we achieved:
Worked together to set up a countywide group to fight homelessness and developed a special plan for people leaving prison so they don't end up on the streets. |
Our Rough Sleeper Initiative helped more than 2,100 people across the five councils between 2022 and 2025. We listened to people with lived experience of rough sleeping to inform our work. |
We created safe places for people escaping domestic abuse and opened a ten-room home for young people in Wychavon at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping. |
We hired Mental Health Link Workers and trained our staff to better help people with complex needs. |
We offered plans and support to help people with their living costs, so they could keep their homes during tough economic times. |
We want to build on these successes now by putting more focus, time and money into preventing homelessness from happening in the first place and reducing the risk factors.
Our five main goals to end homelessness
our new plan to end homelessness and rough sleeping has five main parts, or ‘pillars. Each pillar has clear goals and actions we will take to reach them. They reflect and support the Government’s national plan to end homelessness.
Below are the key highlights of some of the goals and actions under each pillar. For the full information, please read the strategy in full.
Pillar 1: Stop homelessness before it starts (universal prevention)
We will stop homelessness and rough sleeping before it starts by dealing with the root causes.
Our goals are to:
- Build more affordable homes.
- Provide support to help people stay in their homes
- Make sure we use the homes we already have in the best way.
- Help people earn more money, manage their finances better and provide financial support
- Spot problems early
What we will do:
- Work more closely with landlords to prevent evictions by identifying those at risk of losing their home at an early stage.
- Create a Help to Stay scheme to provide legal and financial advice and support to people at risk of homelessness so they can stay in their own home.
- Expand partnerships to ensure more legal support is offered to tenants facing eviction, especially around the new Renters’ Rights Act.
- Make sure potential homelessness cases are referred by partners to us as early as possible.
- Make better use of existing social housing
- Look into teaching young people in schools about homelessness and their housing rights.
Pillar 2: Help those most at risk (targeted prevention)
We will give extra help to people who are more likely to become homeless, like young people leaving care, ex-prisoners, and veterans.
Our goals are to:
- Find people who are at high risk early.
- Remove things that stop people from getting the help they need.
- Provide personalised support
What we will do:
- We will look at making better use of information we have to find households that might become homeless three to six months before it happens.
- Improve accommodation options for rough sleepers.
- Personalised funding support plans for rough sleepers who have been unable to get or maintain their own place to live in the past.
- Improve links with health services including mental health services
- Identify and target the factors that cause repeat rough sleeping.
- Try out a program called "Upstream" in schools. It will help families talk through problems to prevent young people from becoming homeless.
- We will create more safe places to stay and offer special housing help for people who have experienced domestic abuse to reduce unsuitable bed and breakfast use.
- We will do a health study to understand the specific health needs of homeless people and improve their health care.
- Increase assessments carried out with prisoners preparing to leave prison to make sure they have a place to live before they are released.
- Retain support for veterans in line with the Worcestershire Armed Forces Covenant.
Pillar 3: Act quickly in a crisis (Preventing crisis)
We will provide the right support, at the right time to help people at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping stay in their homes.
Our goals are to:
- Act early
- Make sure people get the right help at the right time.
- Reduce use of temporary housing
What we will do:
- Raise awareness of the support available.
- Review our services and put in place long-term schemes that help prevent homelessness at the earliest possible opportunity.
- Ensure homelessness services are well connected to other services (such as the new Crisis Resilience Fund) so help can be delivered when it will make the biggest difference.
- Use information we have to predict people at risk of homelessness three to six months before and put in place support.
- Continue funding Rough Sleeper Coordinators and outreach support to help people on the streets find homes, especially those with difficult pasts.
Pillar 4: Better emergency help (Improving emergency responses)
If someone does become homeless, we want to make sure they get good support and their time without a home is as short as possible. We especially want to stop using Bed and Breakfast (B&B) places for families.
Our goals are to:
- Improve temporary accommodation options
- Focus on children’s needs when placing families in temporary accommodation
- Work with schools and doctors to ensure families are supported while they are in temporary housing.
- Look at our housing rules to help people move from temporary homes to permanent ones more quickly.
What we will do:
- Increase quality temporary housing including working with Registered Housing Providers, leasing or buying properties.
- Reduce use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation for families with children and avoid placing them outside of the district where possible.
- Improve assessment and support while someone is in temporary housing and make sure appropriate information is shared with relevant partners that could speed the move from temporary housing to a permanent solution.
- Help children and families in temporary accommodation keep connections to schools, services and other support networks.
Pillar 5: Getting back on track (Recovery and preventing repeat homelessness)
Helping people rebuild their lives so they don't become homeless again. We want to cut the number of people sleeping rough for a long time in half.
Our goals are to:
- Make sure people don’t experience homelessness more than once
- Reduce long-term rough sleeping by half.
- Give ongoing support to people after they move into a permanent home including access to mental health, physical health, substance use and community services.
What we will do:
- Review current schemes that support people rough sleeping and create new services to fill any gaps.
- Create programs where people who have been homeless can help and support others.
- We will make sure more independent advisors are available for vulnerable people, like young people and those who have experienced domestic abuse.
- Understand what causes repeat homelessness so those factors can be targeted.
- Develop a way for referring people in temporary accommodation to medical professionals, schools etc.
Working together with our partners
Ending homelessness and rough sleeping is a big job that no single group can do alone. That's why we work closely with many different people and organisations. This includes other local councils, health services, social care teams, schools, the police, and many charities and volunteer groups.
We also listen to people who have experienced homelessness themselves, as their ideas are very important. By working together, we can share knowledge, spot problems early, and make sure people get all the help they need to find and keep a home. This teamwork helps us create better services and build stronger, safer communities for everyone.
How we will pay for this plan
We use different grants and local money to pay for these services.
Key funds include the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant, money from the Domestic Abuse Act, and the Household Support Fund.
These funds help pay for rough sleeping outreach teams, emergency housing, and specially trained staff who support people affected by domestic abuse.
We will check this plan every year to make sure it is working well and add new actions if needed.