The number of households in North Herts that are homeless or threatened with homelessness has declined since 2020-21, recently released figures show.

The issue of homelessness in North Herts has been in the spotlight recently, with the Lord Lister Hotel controversially turned into supported accommodation for homeless people.

Across 2021-22, 281 households in North Herts were assessed as homeless and 194 as threatened with homelessness. These were lower than the figures for 2020-21, which were 385 and 229 respectively, according to data provided by North Herts Council to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The statistics give the number of households assessed by the council as being owed a prevention duty (threatened with homelessness) or a relief duty (homeless). Nationally, there was a slight increase in the number of households threatened with homelessness.

The number of homeless households with dependent children did not decline, instead rising slightly from 61 to 62. However, there was a reduction in the number of households with dependent children that were threatened with homelessness, from 113 to 94.

One striking change was the increase in the percentage of households threatened with homelessness that came from the private rented sector. In 2020-21, 20 households (three per cent of the total) that were threatened with homelessness had applied for council help following a Section 21,no fault, eviction notice.

This number almost doubled in 2021-22, to 38 (eight per cent of the total).

When asked for comment, North Herts Council said that “comparing the recently released 2021-22 data with the previous year … is misleading as 2020-21 was heavily impacted by the pandemic, creating unprecedented conditions including an exceptionally large demand for homelessness assistance.

“The council also assisted a large cohort of single homeless people during the pandemic in line with the government’s ‘Everyone In’ directive which has inflated the figures for 2020-21.”

However, across England as a whole, demand for homelessness assistance increased from 2020-21 to 2021-22. North Herts has, therefore, bucked the trend with its reduction in the number of households that were assessed as being either homeless or threatened with homelessness.