Residents with specific housing needs in Fife will be able to help the council develop future support and services.

Fife Council is is updating its Specific Needs Housing Approach; a scheme which attends to the specific accommodation needs of residents.

At the Executive Committee this week it was agreed to establish residents’ opinions on the proposed revisions.

Councillor David Ross, Executive Member for Housing said: "While this [Specific Needs Housing Group] is made up of representatives from Fife Councils’ Housing & Neighbourhood and Social Work Services, the Disabled Persons Housing Service, Fife Housing Register and NHS Fife it is considered vital those with specific needs, their families or representatives have a direct say too in what is provided both now and in the future."

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The scheme seeks to improve services available to people with sensory impairment and physical disability, people who are discharged from hospital and people with specific requirements like the traveling community.

The news comes as Fife Council announces it has met its 2012 homelessness target.

The Homelessness 2012 target was set in 2003. It requires all 32 local authorities to remove the priority needs test from homeless households. This means that if a household is assessed as being homeless they do not have to prove additional vulnerability before being entitled to housing.

Councillor David Ross, Executive Member for housing said: "Hitting the 2012 target is a major achievement for Fife. But I want to stress that meeting the 2012 target doesn’t in any way mean we have abolished homelessness in Fife and this work has to go on.

"The only real way to meet housing need in Fife is by building more affordable homes. That is why the council has set a target of having 2,700 new affordable homes built in Fife over the next 5 years."

(IT)