§ Mrs. Anne Kerrasked the Minister of Health, what steps are being taken to deal with the situation at King Hill Hostel, West Malling, Kent; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonTemporary accommodation for homeless persons is provided at this hostel by Kent County Council in discharge of their duty under the National Assistance Act; and I should make it clear that the manner in which that duty is carried out is primarily for the decision of the Council, subject always to my general guidance.
In January last I first raised with the Council a number of matters in connection with conditions at the hostel and their arrangements for providing temporary accommodation, and particularly the possibility of providing smaller units 345W in a number of towns in the county instead of this one centre; the desirability of closer co-operation with housing authorities to prevent eviction and to facilitate re-housing; the reasonableness of the rules excluding husbands from residence in the hostel and limiting residence for wives and children to a maximum of three months. These and associated matters have also been the subject of more recent communication with the Council. They have been reviewing their arrangements, and I am now informed that they have so far taken the following decisions. They propose to seek full co-operation of all housing authorities in the county for the purposes mentioned; and to consider whether as a complement to these arrangements the Council itself should provide additional premises in several localities and expand or improve existing measures on behalf of homeless families. They propose for the time being to retain the rule excluding men from living at the hostel, but will consider allowing weekend stay; and over Christmas the rule will be relaxed from 2 p.m. on Friday, 24th December to 9 a.m. on Tuesday, 28th December. They propose also to retain the general rule of a maximum residence of three months, but to authorise a group of Council members to keep the circumstances of each family under regular and systematic review and if necessary to extend the period of residence. This group of members will specifically review the question of taking legal action to enforce this rule in relation to those cases in which writs have been issued and to all future cases.
The steps taken so far, though they should bring about a more satisfactory situation, do not fully implement the suggestions I made to the Council. They assure me, however, that their review of the arrangements is continuing and that they will inform me of further developments. I shall continue to keep in close touch with their progress.