Rhyl: Homeless people concentrated in seaside resort - report

The beach brings visitors, but homelessness is a problem in the town

A seaside town has a concentration of homeless people compared to the rest of its home county, a report has found.

Rhyl, in Denbighshire, has a disproportionate number of the area's homeless people and families, councillors were told.

There are currently 316 households in emergency or temporary accommodation in the county. It is not clear exactly how many of these are in Rhyl.

Having a high proportion of the total in Rhyl was described as "a problem".

Housing officer Ann Lloyd said 342 households had come through the system last year.

There are currently 184 households in emergency accommodation, such as bed and breakfast, and 132 in temporary accommodation.

She told the performance committee: "The 184 in emergency accommodation has been pretty static since the start of Covid, so we are getting numbers in; we are getting numbers out, but what we are seeing is a pretty much flat line of the numbers still coming into homelessness.

"The majority of them are in the north of the county. The majority of them are accommodated in Rhyl, which is a problem for us, we know.

"We are trying to overcome that, but we do have homelessness right across the county in smaller numbers.

"We have got a slightly larger cluster in Llangollen. We've got homeless [people] accommodated in Denbigh, Ruthin, but predominantly, unfortunately, the majority of them are up on the coast and are in Rhyl."

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Patterns of homelessness also varied, with more families in the south of Denbighshire coming forward, which Ms Lloyd said was "challenging" in finding accommodation for them close to their communities, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

New-build council housing in Denbigh and Prestatyn is expected to be completed in April or May, while work to convert poor-quality houses of multiple occupation in Bath Street, Rhyl into self-contained accommodation is under way.

A homelessness private rented-sector leasing scheme has taken on four properties, and the council is targeting an additional eight for 2023-24, aiming to bring 80 homes across Denbighshire and Conwy into a long-term lease scheme by 2027.

But councillors heard there were only three identified rough sleepers in the county, who had complex needs and would not come into services despite efforts by housing staff.

Ms Lloyd said: "It is a lifestyle choice they are making at this moment in time, and we cannot persuade them to do anything differently."