Homelessness Trends in Solihull

Homelessness is an important issue in Solihull. Homelessness in Solihull reflects the shortage of affordable housing but has other causes too, such as non-violent relationship breakdown and domestic violence.

The Council has a Homelessness Strategy that covers the period up to the end of 2014/15 and this goes into more detail on the causes of homelessness in Solihull and what the Council is doing with its partners to tackle the problem. 

For Information on how to access the Council's Homelessness services, and what homelessness means, look at the homelessness help and advice section .

All local authorities in England are required to provide a statistical return to Central Government every three months.You can access this data here: Homelessness data for other local authorities, regions and England

Solihull has historically had a comparatively high rate of homelessness 'acceptances' (those for whom the Council has a statutory duty to make an offer of permanent accommodation) compared to other Councils. Homelessness prevention work has helped to reduce the number of homelessness applications and 'acceptances'. However having seen a longer term trend of reductions in homeless acceptances, with the number of households accepted as homeless reducing significantly from 820 in 2003/4 to 256 in 2009/10, data for 2011/12 shows that acceptances in Solihull are starting to increase again with 330 households accepted as homeless between 1st April 2011 and 31st March 2012. This is a 28% increase compared to the 256 cases accepted in 2009/10.

Solihull's position on homelessness has improved relative to other Council areas. The table below uses official data and shows homelessness acceptance rates per 1,000 households (this is the way the Government compares councils performance). This shows that until 2006/07 there were higher homelessness acceptances in Solihull when compared to the West Midlands region and to England. Homelessness acceptance reductions have been greater in Solihull so that Solihull's rate is now below the regional average. The degree of improvement has outstripped regional and national progress, although acceptance rates per 1,000 households have started to increase in 2010/11 and this is in line with both regional and national figures. The rate remains higher than for England as a whole although the gap is becoming smaller.

Homelessness Rates Per 1,000 Households