NEW homelessness laws will put “significant” extra strain on already tight budgets at City of York Council, it has been warned.

The authority is drawing up a new strategy for trying to reduce homelessness, and a scrutiny committee is due to discuss a draft version on Monday.

However with national laws changing staff are warning that already-strained budgets face yet more pressure as the council will have to offer more help and advice to people who are either homeless, or at risk of losing their home.

In a written report to the scrutiny committee, housing service manager Becky Ward said the new Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 gives councils more duties around homelessness.

Although those duties and a push to relieve homelessness are “widely supported”, there are concerns about the extra resources needed to deliver on that, she wrote.

The report says: “Full implementation of the new duties and responsibilities will add significant additional demand onto already squeezed budgets and resources.”

It goes on to say that in York, getting a finalised Local Plan “holds the key” to making sure there are enough homes to meet demand. A dearth of affordable accommodation is a “structural cause” of homelessness, the report adds.

The draft of the new strategy also contains some warnings about the future.

The strategy, which will run until 2023, says: “Whilst our ultimate goal should be to end homelessness in all its forms we acknowledge this may not be achievable within the lifetime of this strategy. ”

It also says that with 1,500 people or families on a housing waiting list in York, and a growing number of people joining that list, some people will never get offered a home as only around 500 become free each year.

Tom Brittain, assistant director of housing at the council, said the new homeless strategy was being drawn up with the help of partner agencies, and would “build on [the] existing work to tackle homelessness”.

He said that while City of York already does a lot of the work included in the strategy as “best practice”, the 2017 law gives it new responsibilities to work with people for 56 days to try and keep them in their homes, and another 56 to find alternatives.

He added: “We are in the early stages of this change but expect that more people will approach us for help and have already found that staff are spending even more time with residents understanding their situation and helping them secure accommodation.”

The draft strategy will be submitted for approval by senior councillors this summer, after the scrutiny committee’s debate.