Visitors to Brent Civic Cente and Wembley Library will have become used to seeing homeless families, often accompanied by children and suitcases, waiting to be seen by council officers. It is a sobering daily reminder to councillor officers, councillors and the public of the borough's homelessness crisis.
At present the Families Homelessness Service sees an average of 61 families a week.
Now Brent Council is considering moving the Families Homelessness Service to the New Millennium Centre in Robson Avenue (there is also an entrance on Harlesden Road), Willesden, at a cost of c£400,000 for fitting out the allocated spaces. The aim is co-location of the service with other services that would help families in need of support.
However, the proposal comes on top of the £1.96 million being spent on reshaping the Civic Centre to improve Customer Services which involves moving the library and the main entrance. Brent Liberal Democrats strongly criticised that proposal, arguing that the money could be better spent in the borough LINK.
At the same time there are at least 2 office floors at the Civic Centre that are empty and Brent Council has appointed Avison Young to market them to high status clients. LINK
As you view the marketing video you cannot but think that families surrounded by suitcases with children running around do not fit in with the glossy image Brent Council is promoting for the Civic Centre. The New Millennium Centre appears shabby by comparison.
The marketing video stresses the accessibility of the Brent Civic Centre to public transport including the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines. The paper going to Cabinet states that the New Millenium Centre is accessible by the 206 and 226 bus routes. Both are usually single deckers and not as frequent as other routes. The 206 is promoted as giving access from the Civic Centre. It is crowded at school start and finish times and is regularly curtailed at Bridge Park on Wembley Event Days. Taking your suitcases and children on the bus to Robson Avenue could be quite a headache.
Clearly there are advantages in co-location of services and the Council's proposal is set out below for fairness so that readers can make up their own minds. Will it be a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'?
Proposal
It is proposed the Families Homelessness Service relocates from the Brent Civic Centre to the New Millennium Centre, Roundwood. The proposed relocation offers several opportunities. The site is located in the south of the borough, with high levels of homelessness demand and is walking distance from the Single Homelessness Service at the Turning Point, The Design Works, Park Parade, Harlesden, NW10 4HT (10 minutes). It is also conveniently located a walking distance to the Crisis Skylight building (15 minutes) and Job Centre Plus Harlesden (15 minutes), both key partners in tackling the homelessness emergency.
The service would also benefit from co-location with other complementary services based at the New Millennium Centre. The site will be host to services designed to support vulnerable adults and families. This includes the Community Wellbeing Service which is targeted at families and as part of which a free, evening Community Kitchen meal service will be available to all (including non-members). Families accessing the families homelessness service may access elements of the food support, as well as potential be eligible to join the wider scheme. Brent Hubs will also be based on site, as well as Debt and Immigration advisors on a timetable basis.
The Brent Hubs already work directly with and alongside volunteer and charity organisations, such as Citizens Advice, Age UK, Brent Mind, and many others, enabling much clearer referral pathways and knowledge sharing.
Building works to prepare the site ahead of the service launch offer an opportunity to expand the scope of the works to include an area in the site for delivery of the Family Homeless Service, which would provide purpose-built facilities for the service.
The primary goal of the proposals in this report is to empower residents to become more independent, yet during times of unprecedented crisis support will be available to help with immediate responses to issues such as homelessness risk. Co-location with wider services including Brent Hubs, debt and food support is expected to help vulnerable families with wider challenges they may be facing. Proposals aim to prevent future rough sleeping, and to prevent future homelessness main duty acceptances through the intervention of support services.
The service is currently based in the Brent Civic Centre and is responsible for assessing homelessness applications from families with dependent children and pregnant women. The service has been experiencing high demand for the past 2 years, due to the national housing crisis and sees an average of 61 families per week. There has also been a recent influx of larger families, many of whom come directly to the Civic Centre at the point they become homeless.
The approved model includes a ‘Community Wellbeing Service’ – an expanded version of the Community Wellbeing Project piloted at Bridge Park Leisure Centre which supported up to 400 families per year with access to food and household essentials, as well as providing wraparound support to improve their situations in the longer-term. The Community Wellbeing Service will operate five days per week at the New Millennium Centre, where it will be co-located with wider support provision such as Brent Hubs and specialist debt and immigration advice and will have capacity to support up to 1,000 families and residents per year. The New Millenium Centre site provides the space and core facilities required to deliver the expanded Kitchen, CafĂ© and Shop offer of the new Community Wellbeing Service, as well as make use of other on-site facilities including the garden.
Management responsibility for the New Millennium Centre will transfer from Adult Social Care (ASC) to Partnerships, Housing and Resident Services in-line with the 1st November 2024 phased launch of the new service. ASC client groups that currently access a day support offer from the site will continue to do so on a sessional basis under new arrangements. This client group will also be able to access and benefit from the new wider suite of services delivered from the site, with support where required.
The New Millennium Centre is accessible for residents including through 206 and 226 Bus Routes and is located in a deprived area with low food accessibility (based on e-food desert index EFDI) and high levels of RSF applications and Council Tax Arrears. It is also within walking distance of the Willesden Centre for Health and Care (2 minutes) and both Harlesden and Willesden High Roads (15 minutes).
The report will be presented at Cabinet on Monday by Muhammed Butt, lead member for housing as well as council leader.
