A council Labour group leader doesn’t want families who become homeless to be “disadvantaged” because rough sleepers with “chaotic lifestyles” are being housed.

Cllr Joan Butterfield said rough sleepers should be behind families in housing queues because those “chaotic lifestyles” mean they’ll leave accommodation and become a problem again.

The authority’s Labour group leader spoke after hearing a report on homelessness presented to Denbighshire council’s partnerships scrutiny committee last week.

Representing Rhyl West, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, she said residents with families and jobs were struggling because of the “climate of the day” and should get “some priority”.

All local authorities in Wales have a duty to house all rough sleepers during the pandemic and keep them off the streets.

Phil Gilroy, Denbighshire’s head of community support services, told Cllr Butterfield everyone who is homeless will get the support they need whether a family with children or a rough sleeper.

Cllr Butterfield said: “We know there are going to be more and more families finding themselves unable to pay rent or perhaps pay mortgages – and that’s fast coming I’m afraid.

“I wouldn’t want to see any of them disadvantaged because we are trying to house  a rough sleeper.

“I feel they should be given some priority because their lifestyles are being brought about by the climate of the day, if you like. Jobs aren’t available to them.

“I do have concerns over what we call the rough sleepers because they do live chaotic lifestyles.

“We can bend over backwards to provide them with a house, or new accommodation.

“They leave that accommodation and then become a problem in the system again. So is there a redress there?

“I don’t know how we inform the people who use the services, which are very expensive.”

Cllr Butterfield added she hoped there was some kind of programme to “look at the chaotic lifestyles of people in need”, who she said had been dealt with in an “exemplary” way over last winter.

Mr Gilroy informed her there were different levels of support for people but the simple answer was his colleagues would help anyone presenting as potentially homeless.

He said: “Our intention is to move much more upstream and start working with people before they are homeless.

“So we can make sure we can do all we can to help them stay where they are in whatever way, rather than becoming homeless and having to move on.

“But if that happens and they do move on, then it doesn’t matter if you’re a rough sleeper or you are a family with three kids who have been made redundant.

“You would still get the same support needed at the level  you need it.”

Mr Gilroy said it was important not to walk away from those classed as “street homeless”.

He added: “What we do is work with you for as long as we need to so you can manage that living situation, that tenancy. As you say, for some people that’s really difficult.

“People who are street homeless, they may have been living on the street for years in different parts of Denbighshire or across North Wales.

“We do have a scheme called housing first which is focused very much on finding those street homeless.

“They find them and develop a relationship, then they try and move them into accommodation, which is really difficult to find.”

He said the first person contacted by the Housing First team was still in their tenancy 12 months later.

However he said the approach used with street homeless people was different to interventions for families.

Mr Gilroy predicted there was worse to come as regards homelessness.

He said: “We know that once Covid is out of the way and the restriction on evicting people is taken out, then we will see a rise in the number presenting to us and it will get more difficult again.”