Have your say on plan to prevent homelessness
Published
Wednesday 29 July, 2026
Updated
Wednesday 29 July, 2026
Have your say on Swale Borough Council’s plans to prevent and reduce homelessness in Swale.
The council has launched a consultation on their draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out how they will work to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.
Between April 2025 and March 2026 699 households approached the council as homeless with an additional 1815 households receiving tailored housing advice and assistance.
The strategy outlines four priorities to reduce homelessness and improve the support provided, focusing on early intervention, tailored support and strong partnership working throughout:
- Early intervention to prevent homelessness - preventing people from becoming homeless by offering the right trauma-informed, empathetic and targeted advice and support
- Good quality, affordable temporary accommodation - improving the quality of temporary accommodation, while keeping necessary stays as stable and short as possible
- Access to appropriate accommodation - increasing access to a wide choice of stable, affordable and quality homes, including increasing social housing and making private rented accommodation more accessible
- Work to end rough sleeping – identifying risks early to strengthen intervention, improving the pathways into support and access to sustainable housing and continuing to work with partners to offer support for people with complex needs
Cllr Hannah Perkin, chair of Swale Borough Council’s Housing, Health and Communities Committee, said:
“Our draft strategy sets out how we plan to prevent and reduce homelessness in Swale through early intervention, access to appropriate temporary and long-term accommodation and our continued work to end rough sleeping.
“Identifying risks early will give us the opportunity to provide targeted support to people before crisis, avoiding homelessness and helping them into stable accommodation.
“Having secure, good-quality housing has a direct impact on people’s health and overall quality of life, making tackling the root causes of homelessness essential for creating resilient, healthy communities.
“We are acutely aware that people’s circumstances can be complex – an example being that domestic abuse factors in 20% of all homelessness cases – meaning every individual needs tailored support, often from across partners.
“Like all councils across the country, we are providing these crucial services within a limited budget, despite the demand for support growing as the rising cost of living impacts our residents’ lives, making prevention and early intervention incredibly important.
“Please read through our strategy and give us your feedback; we want to make sure that our plan to reduce homelessness and offer support to those in need, continues to be informed by lived experiences the people in Swale.”
