Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice and provided the text to Barry Khan, Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services – email: barry.khan@northyorks.gov.uk or in writing to Barry Khan, Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services, County Hall, Northallerton DL7 8AD by midday on Friday, 7 November 2025. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item.
If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Chair who will instruct anyone who may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.
Minutes:
There was one public statement, as follows:
1. The following public statement was read out by Richard Cooper, Chief Executive of Harrogate Homeless project
My name is Richard Cooper and I am the Chief Executive of Harrogate Homeless Project.
Thank you for allowing me to speak to you and I do so to support the North Yorkshire Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 to 2030.
Our charity was founded in 1991 and has grown into an organisation at the forefront of homelessness support in North Yorkshire. We provide over 40 rooms in accommodation across Harrogate which help us provide a journey for our clients from a life on the streets to independent living. The people we support often have chaotic lives characterised by drug and alcohol addiction, crime, poor mental and physical health, relationship breakdown, unemployment and more.
Our support is not just residential. At our Springboard day centre in Harrogate alongside hot, nutritious food we partner with health professionals to provide a weekly GP, Hepatitis testing, smoking cessation session and much more alongside a series of activities to help our clients develop healthy lifestyles and speed their path to full recovery, accommodation and work.
One of our closest working relationship is with the housing team at North Yorkshire Council and I commend you and your officers for the impressive emphasis you place on supporting entrenched rough sleepers and the homeless.
To me, the new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy is further evidence of the council’s commitment to support the least fortunate and most marginalised.
The document merits a lengthier introduction than I am able to give and I am sure the executive member and officers will do this much more adequately than I am able to.
Nonetheless I would like to highlight some key aspects of the strategy which I believe can contribute to a step change in how we help rough sleepers recover from those issues.
The key area to my mind that the strategy addresses is homelessness prevention including making homelessness a once-only occurrence – preventing it happening twice if you like.
This recognises that giving a rough sleeper a property without addressing the issues that put them on the streets in the first place is unlikely to result in a positive outcome. To do so simply sets someone up to fail.
I spoke earlier of the mental and physical health issues our clients face, of the addiction battles, of family breakdown and of unemployment. Getting someone into a house doesn’t solve these problems. And I guarantee you, in nine cases out of 10 you will see that person in crisis again within weeks.
The strategy recognises this and through its actions around what is called ‘multiple disadvantage’ and the wrap around model the council is implementing with it’s Make Every Adult Matter work – or MEAM as it is called – these issues stand a fighting chance of being addressed.
There are other elements of the strategy that I would briefly like to highlight in the time I have available. Working with probation to ensure that people leaving prison don’t go straight onto the streets is critical. How do we expect people to reintegrate into society and not to re-offend if the life we give them outside prison is a shop doorway and a sleeping bag?
Expanding the successful REACH model with its emphasis on mental health support is welcomed. We don’t have this kind of support in Harrogate, yet over 90 per cent of our residential clients have diagnosed mental health issues.
To close, Chair, at Harrogate Homeless Project we have aligned our priorities with yours so that we can deliver support for rough sleepers and homeless people together. Our partnership with the council officers and with councillors from all sides of this august chamber delivers better outcomes for the most marginalised in society.
This strategy will strengthen our approach and we, at Harrogate Homeless Project, offer our full support in implementing it should council be minded to approve it.
The Executive Member for Culture, Arts and Housing, Councillor Simon Myers, thanked Mr Cooper for the support and thanked the Harrogate Homeless Project for its work in addressing these complex issues.