Row looms in Wales over homelessness

Local authorities and housing charities look set to clash over the
future direction of homelessness policies in Wales.

The Welsh Local Government Association wants the number of targets
included under the Welsh assembly’s national homelessness strategy
to be significantly reduced to simplify the issue among councillors
and focus their attention.

Craig Mitchell, policy officer at the WLGA, said: “There are 24
targets and it is difficult to meet all of them. It causes
confusion [for councils] on where to prioritise.”

However, Joy Kent, director at housing charity Cymorth Cymru,
warned that the danger of getting rid of some targets was that
those areas could be forgotten by councils.

She said: “It is good for a national strategy to include everything
and for councils to prioritise from there, depending on local
needs. I believe it would be wrong for the national strategy to
limit the number of possible priorities.”

Consultants are reviewing the two-year-old strategy for the
assembly.