Our Journey of Change- Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy
Ashford Borough Council is committed to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping across our borough. We have now published our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, which can be downloaded here:
Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy [pdf] 730KB
This strategy outlines our approach to preventing and addressing homelessness, aiming to ensure that residents in the borough of Ashford can access the support they need. Through partnership working, we strive to end rough sleeping and improve access to suitable and affordable housing.
Together, We Can Make a Difference
Homelessness affects individuals, families, children and communities.
Homelessness can mean rough sleeping, living in temporary accommodation, staying on sofas, living in a home which is not safe or suitable or fleeing abuse.
By working together, we can create a borough where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Our Key Priorities
The strategy has five key priorities:
- Monitor the current and likely future levels of homelessness.
- Prevent homelessness.
- Make sure accommodation is or will be available for people who are or may become homeless.
- Provide support to people who are or maybe become homeless, or who have been homeless and need support to prevent them becoming homeless again.
- Make best use of the resources available to tackle homelessness.
Delivery of the key priorities is vital to our aim of ending rough sleeping and preventing homelessness in Ashford. To do this, and in line with the National Plan to End Homelessness delivery of our strategy will be monitored using our Strategy Action Plan.
Our Action Plan
Our Action Plan sets out what we will do to achieve our key priorities, who is responsible for each action, our annual targets and how we will monitor delivery of the plan.
Homelessness And Rough Sleeping Strategy Action Plan [pdf] 504KB
Monitoring of actions is undertaken quarterly (once every 3 months) by our Core Group and annually (once a year) by Cabinet.
How To Get Involved
We cannot deliver this strategy alone. Ashford Borough Council are proud to have partnered with a number of commissioned services, voluntary/faith/charity services, individuals with lived experience and public bodies in order to deliver change.
You can get involved and help our residents in a number of ways.
Join our Core Group
Be part of our Core Group, who scrutinise our action plan. They will be responsible for:
- Agreeing actions
- Overseeing delivery
- Monitoring and challenging performance
- Ensuring alignment between the action plan and the Strategy
Our Core Group is made up of staff from Ashford Borough Council, partner agencies and individuals with lived experience.
The Chair of the Core Group is Natalia Merritt, Service Lead for Housing Options and Allocations.
If you wish to join our Core Group, you can email Dan Ford, Single Homelessness Team Co-Ordinator at dan.ford@ashford.gov.uk.
Volunteer for a Task and Finish Group
Task and Finish groups undertake a variety of tasks in order to deliver objectives against specific actions. We need people from all areas, including people with lived experience of homelessness, to help us:
- Design services
- Problem solve
- Come up with new ways of working
- Understand what is going well and what needs improvement
- Deliver projects
- Improve outcomes
- Undertake any other tasks to help with delivery of the plan
People in Task and Finish groups do not work alone. Individuals from all backgrounds, different types of agencies and levels of experience come together to get the best outcome.
Groups are led by the owner of a specific action, who is expected to feed back to the Core Group.
We will announce available Task and Finish Groups in early 2027, but if you are interested in contributing in any way, please email Dan Ford, Single Homelessness Team Co-Ordinator at dan.ford@ashford.gov.uk.
Deliver a Service from our Community Hub
Lived experience feedback tells us people want a One Stop Shop for services which rough sleepers or people in need of support can access. If your agency would like to deliver a service future spaces, please email Dan Ford, Single Homelessness Team Co-Ordinator at dan.ford@ashford.gov.uk.
