Number of people in homeless accommodation in Flintshire up 27% in a year
The number of people living in homeless accommodation in Flintshire rose by 27% last year, a report to senior councillors reveals.
The county council’s homelessness service also missed both of its main targets in 2025, preventing homelessness in 61% of at-risk cases against a target of 65%, and helping 38% of homeless households into settled housing against a target of 40%.
The figures are contained in the annual Homelessness and Rough Sleeper report going before Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday 16 June.
The service dealt with 1,829 cases during 2025, with households approaching the council after becoming homeless or being threatened with homelessness. Homelessness accounted for around 59% of all calls to the council’s housing helpline.
Losing a private rented home remained the single biggest cause, with more than 370 households coming to the council after being told to leave by their landlord. Being asked to leave by parents accounted for 287 cases, with a further 272 asked to leave by other relatives or friends. Relationship breakdown, both violent and non-violent, accounted for 351 cases between them.
Figures recorded at the end of each month show the number of people in homeless accommodation in Flintshire climbed from 475 in January 2025 to a peak of 582 in October, before falling back to 499 by December. Only Cardiff, Newport, Conwy and Swansea recorded consistently higher numbers among Welsh councils for much of the year.
The report says the council’s overall budget for the service, covering staff and all temporary accommodation costs, currently stands at £9.28 million.
The private rented sector has become ‘worse’, the report states, with an acute imbalance between supply and demand as landlords leave the market. Local Housing Allowance rates, which determine how much housing benefit private tenants receive, have been frozen again for 2026/27, with the shared room rate standing at £87.50 a week.
Social housing supply is also out of step with who actually becomes homeless. Around 71% of homeless households need a one-bedroom home, but most one-bed social housing in Flintshire is sheltered accommodation largely reserved for over-55s, leaving little for younger single people.
There were three people sleeping rough in Flintshire in December, after a rise to seven in November. Numbers remained in low single figures for most of the year.
One figure moving in the right direction is the out of hours emergency helpline, where calls almost halved from 417 in 2024 to 219 last year.
The service itself remains under strain. The report says the homeless team has seen ‘a significant amount of staff turnover’ in recent years, with sickness and work-related stress closely monitored and additional support in place for officers dealing with traumatic cases.
Housing consultant Neil Morland, whose 2024 independent review found officers carrying around double the recommended caseload, is now carrying out a follow-up review of progress. His findings will feed into a single improvement plan covering homelessness and housing services.
New Welsh legislation is also on the way. The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill, passed by the Senedd in February, aims to make homelessness ‘rare, brief, and unrepeated’ and will widen who can access homelessness services.
Cabinet will be asked to endorse the report and continue supporting the service’s work.
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