Tag Archives: move on accommodation

A lifeline for prison leavers

People leaving prison are at high risk of homelessness – often they are released with nowhere to go or with accommodation options that are unsustainable. On release, they may struggle to find accommodation with a private landlord or to access welfare payments. Supported housing for ex-offenders, such as Longhurst’s Group‘s specialist accommodation and floating support service in Grimsby, can offer a lifeline. Rob Sumner, Service Manager – NE Lincs Housing Related Support, shares how the service is helping ex-offenders build independence and move forward with their lives.

Since the loss of industry in Grimsby, the area has become one of the most deprived in England. It has high unemployment, with more people claiming welfare benefits – including in-work benefits – than the national average.

The crime rate for the area currently sits at 134 per 1000 people, with 11,811 crimes committed in the area in 2021 – the majority of which are violence, sexual offences, criminal damage, and anti-social behaviour.

Longhurst Group’s Accommodation and Floating Support service in Grimsby operates 17 shared properties, mainly in the East Marsh region which is one of the most deprived areas in the town.

There are a total of 48 bed spaces, with customers occupying rooms on licence agreements. Four in five customers have some type of criminal history and the aim of the service is to provide customers with a second chance.

Often, we find that offenders are released back into the community with very little support. Customers are often told to attend probation at a certain time and are often left with no accommodation.

This has a huge impact on them re-offending and often when speaking to customers they’ll state they’ve previously re-offended to access prison as this is a better option than homelessness.

Rob Sumner, Longhurst Group’s Service Manager, NE Lincs Housing Related Support

We risk assess all customers and try and find the most suitable placement for them. Our colleagues operate a positive risk approach and work closely with the local authority and Probation service and generally house customers who’ve been released from prison with no accommodation.

Colleagues operate a holistic supportive service. Our philosophy is that if it hasn’t worked before, that doesn’t mean that it won’t work now. Each stay, we hope to achieve some outcomes, whether they’re big or small, and build upon this on each time.

This proactivity works to reduce stigma around common issues, as many of the customers accessing the service feel that they’ve been let down and are judged based on their criminal history, drug use and/or mental health diagnosis.

The nature of the service means that a significant number of customers are recalled back to prison, usually for breaching bail conditions. To prevent homelessness and to meet the obligation in the Homelessness Reduction Act, our colleagues will work with probation officers, Housing Benefit teams and other statutory bodies to try to keep accommodation available for customers if the prison stay is short, but any stay in prison isn’t a barrier to accessing the service.

Each property has an allocated support worker who visits every day during the week. We don’t operate the service over a weekend.

This enables customers to build independence and to live with as much normality as possible, with the aim of supporting customers to move on to independent accommodation.

One of our customers stated that she’d used substances since she was 21. She’s now in her 40s. She’d committed several shop thefts to fund her drug use.

As a service, we find that criminality is often used to support drug use. Her last conviction was for criminal damage and assault, with the sentence being three years in prison. This was committed whilst under the influence of Valium.

She had lived in social housing for eight years but due to her criminality and sentencing, this property and tenancy was withdrawn. Upon release, she had no accommodation and ended up sleeping rough and fell back into drug use. The local authority made a referral to several homeless accommodation providers, and we accepted the referral and placed the customer into one of our shared accommodation units.

Since being in the service, our customer has managed to access support for substance misuse and accessed health appointments that she wouldn’t have been able to access previously.

She’s also received support with her mental health and is now on medication. She’s due to move into a new property with her partner and has stated that without the support of the service, this wouldn’t have ever been possible.

Rob Sumner is Service Manager – NE Lincs Housing Related Support at Homes for Cathy member Longhurst Group, one of the leading housing groups in the Midlands and East of England, providing more than 23,500 homes and a wide range of care and support services.

Bucks homeless move-on scheme a stepping stone for Stuart

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Homes for Cathy member Hightown has recently expanded its homelessness services to Buckinghamshire, working with Buckinghamshire Council to co-produce a new move-on service that is proving a lifeline for single people

Opened in 2021, Ardenham House is Hightown’s first specialist homelessness service in Buckinghamshire. Located in the centre of Aylesbury, the RSAP (Rough Sleeper Accommodation Programme) funded service was co-produced with Buckinghamshire Council to provide a vital stepping stone between emergency accommodation and independent living.

Service users at Ardenham House live in their own self-contained studio flats and are supported by our on-site team for up to two years as they prepare to secure and maintain their own tenancy, receiving help with health issues, substance use, budgeting and housing applications.

Stuart moved into Ardenham House in October 2021 after he became homeless through alcohol addiction. He says:

“I fell into a bit of a dark place really. I was living in a rented bedroom and was drinking a lot. The drink became a problem and that’s why I lost the tenancy and became homeless. I got put into temporary accommodation and was put in touch with AHAG – Aylesbury Homeless Action Group – who helped me. I was also in hospital for five weeks due to the alcoholism and was referred to One Recovery Bucks, which specialises in supporting people with alcohol addiction.”

Stuart has access to 24/7 support at Hightown’s Ardenham House service

Whilst in temporary accommodation, Stuart was assessed for his suitability for a tenancy at Ardenham House. Since moving in, he’s made great progress.

He adds: “I get all the support I need here. They help me with letters, bills, monitoring my alcoholism – they’re just fantastic. They are there 24/7, day and night. If I need to go and knock on the door, there’s always someone there on the other side.

“I’ve recently gone back to work, back to the job I used to do before. They took me back on and my colleagues there have stood alongside me. At the moment I’m just taking it day by day with the help and support of the staff here, AHAG and One Recovery Bucks. Having my colleagues at work also makes all the difference.

“At the moment I’m taking it week by week at work; it has been a struggle because I was off for 15 months and I’ve gone straight back into it. I’ve achieved a lot because 15 months ago this was never possible. It just goes to show that there is help out there but people need to work towards it, help themselves. Being here has changed my life – life is finally getting back to normal.”

Psychologically informed approach key to Sovereign’s new Next Steps Accommodation service

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Homes for Cathy spoke to Stephanie Wood, Head of Supported Housing at Sovereign, to find out how the housing association has used MHCLG funding to set up a new move-on scheme in Basingstoke that puts the psychological needs of residents first.

What was the background to your Next Steps Accommodation bid?

Before the funding came up, we were already having various discussions with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council on homelessness provision as part of our involvement with the Basingstoke and Deane Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP). The SIP is a strategic partnership of local stakeholders, including statutory, voluntary and charity organisations, faith groups and local businesses, all of whom want to reduce homelessness and advance social inclusion in the borough.

The local authority clearly highlighted that they had real issue with move-on accommodation from the homeless pathway for single people, especially single people under the age of 35 who simply can’t access self-contained properties as move-on. Not only is it completely unaffordable in Basingstoke for them to cover the cost of a one bed flat, there’s also a massive shortage of one-bed properties in the area.

We wanted to provide something different and it was felt that offering shared accommodation would work much better, preparing people and giving them the skills for a shared living arrangement, as realistically this is likely to be the type of property they will eventually move on to.

Tell us about the accommodation the funding will deliver

We’re setting up three very small HMO shared properties. One is already open – a three-bedroom house where we’re currently converting a garage to provide some social space. The other two – which are very large four-bedroom flats – are being refurbished at the moment to make them three-bedroom flats, one of which will have an office with its own access so as not to impinge on residents’ privacy and the other of which will have a computer or quiet room, depending on what the future residents want.

We were actually really shocked to get the funding, not only because Basingstoke hadn’t been earmarked as an area for Next Steps Accommodation, but also because the service put forward didn’t meet the criteria for self-contained properties.

What secured it for us was the unique support we were able to provide with the revenue element. We’re setting up the service using a psychologically informed approach (PIA), with input from psychologists and peer mentoring – it’s something that was of real interest to MHCLG.

How do the PIA and peer mentoring scheme work and what difference do they make for people using the service?

Through the SIP we were already engaged with an organisation called Outcome Home, a group of psychologists from the University of Southampton who have developed an existing peer mentor programme in Basingstoke. Luckily, they absolutely felt that this was a project they wanted to be part of and we were able to establish a project group together, which includes two peer mentors, two psychologists from the University of Southampton, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and ourselves. What it’s enabled us to do is think about how we could deliver the service differently. The peer mentors and Outcome Home are leading on engagement with residents to shape the policies and approaches for the service, for example how we identify who will move into the properties.

A crucial aspect is that there are no forms to fill in and no referrals; we simply approach the providers of the local homelessness pathway to suggest who they think would benefit from the service. We don’t go through any criminal history or previous tenancies, we ask the current provider to share that information with us so the new tenant doesn’t have to go through it over and over again. The peer mentors and support worker then have a conversation with a prospective tenant to find out what they hope to get out of the scheme, as well as their aspirations in terms of moving forward. It’s all very informal.

With the service that’s already open, before it opened we were able to identify three people who wanted to live together and engage with them about what they wanted the service to look like in terms of decoration, furniture and fittings.

We’re now converting the garage into a lounge with the Next Steps Funding and although we’re limited in terms of the conversion work, the residents have been part of the plans; they’re deciding what’s going in there – a snooker table at present. Our plan was also to involve them in the decorating itself but unfortunately Covid restrictions and the tight timeline has stopped us from being able to do that.

The support itself is being delivered in three ways. Sovereign does the housing management and our support worker provides up to three hours of support for each individual around practical things like benefits and independent living skills. There is also a level of support from the volunteer peer mentors who bring lived experience and have been through a lot of the same challenges. Additionally, the psychologists from Outcomes Homes will spend several hours a week supporting the residents either as a group or as individuals for anyone who wants it.

The difference with a PIA is that services are designed and delivered in a way that considers the emotional and psychological needs of the individuals using them, so with that in mind we also did a piece of work with the residents around how they wanted to manage the property together; they came up with their own rules, such as not smoking inside.

The peer mentors are also involved alongside the psychologists in working with residents on what we call ‘safety planning’, not only looking at how they would like us to respond to potential challenging behaviour but also how they would like their fellow residents to respond, so problems don’t become bigger issues that could ultimately threaten their accommodation. There’s no sanction process; the residents decide what happens when someone breaks the rules and how it’s dealt with – it’s very much turning things on their head in terms of who has the control. It’s quite a unique approach for the residents, who have already been through a pathway of hostels.

Do you have any learnings to share with Homes for Cathy members having set up the service?

As we’ve already opened the first scheme, we definitely have a lot of learnings we can use in the other two properties to make it a smoother process. As with any partnership scheme, going forward it’s important to map out responsibilities and where they sit, so there’s no confusion or doubling up. It’s also important to recognise the engagement process with residents can take time; going too quickly can be very overwhelming and cause unnecessary anxiety. Obtaining ‘buy in’ from other homeless services making the referrals is also vital, not only so that we have a sufficient timeframe to work with residents in advance of moving in but also so that people using those services are informed and educated about their options for moving on and are better prepared when the time comes. Again, it’s part of the whole PIA approach, taking into account their needs around mental and psychological wellbeing and recognising that moving itself can be traumatic.

What are your hopes for the future of the service?

We haven’t put a time limit on residents using the service, despite the MHCLG criteria being that it’s temporary move-on for a maximum of two years. Our belief is that people will be engaging in a service that will move their life on and that they will naturally want progress over that time period. We hope that having engaged with the peer mentors, residents may even be inspired to become peer mentors themselves to future residents.

About Sovereign

Sovereign is a leading housing association operating across the south of England, with almost 60,000 homes focused in a core area covering Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, the West of England and the Isle of Wight.

Read about Charlie, one of the peer mentors working with Sovereign

Can do attitude helps Broadland rise to Next Steps challenge

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In the third in our series of articles about the role of Homes for Cathy members in delivering the Government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme, we spoke to Broadland Housing’s Executive Development Director Andrew Savage and Executive Director of Housing Catherine Little, to find out how they’re rising to the challenge to provide interim accommodation for homeless people in Norfolk.

What’s the homelessness picture in your local area?

Andrew:

Broadland provides more than 5,000 homes across Norfolk and north Suffolk, so we cover both urban and very rural areas. As a city and major town in Norfolk, Norwich and King’s Lynn have always been very much at the sharp end of homelessness, with multiple pressing issues such as a large number of migrant homeless with no recourse to public funds. However, since the pandemic hit, registered providers have realised that there is a homelessness issue right across the area now, not just in the larger settlements. For example, we’ve seen increasing numbers of people rough sleeping in places like Great Yarmouth and towns in North Norfolk that aren’t normally associated with homelessness, such as Fakenham and North Walsham. Consequently, there’s been a lot of pressure on local authorities to accommodate people at short notice, with no additional funds to do so.

Tell us about the projects you are undertaking with NSAP funding…

Andrew:

We asked ourselves the question ‘where do we have critical mass?’ and the answer is Norwich, King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth. In Great Yarmouth, the local authority wanted to own their properties, as they are a stock holding authority. So Broadland are providing development agency services to help the three new build developments the council are undertaking. These when completed will provide circa 30, 50sqm one bedroomed self-contained apartments using modular construction.

In Norwich, we’re working with Norwich City Council to deliver three projects. We’re buying 10 street flats to provide ex-offenders with a stable home and help them reintegrate into the community. This is using the city’s Right to Buy monies and Broadland capital. We’re also purchasing an additional 10 flats, using Next Steps funding, on the open market which will be dedicated to Housing First tenants. Finally, we’re building six one-bedroom modular flats in a new development intended for move-on accommodation.

In King’s Lynn, we have two projects underway using Next Steps funding in collaboration with the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. Again, we’re buying six flats on the open market as part of a Housing First project, and leasing ten one bedroom flats for move on.

Broadland Housing Group’s development director Andrew Savage

Did your NSAP bid include any revenue funding?

Catherine:

Yes, we have revenue funding to support our Housing First projects and also to support people in move-on accommodation. It’s important that people who have experienced homelessness aren’t just given a home and expected to fend for themselves. For the Housing First projects, we’ve commissioned support from specialist providers, who can provide the right expertise in this area.

What have been the key challenges around delivering on the Next Steps programme?

Andrew:

The main challenge has been that we already had our annual development programme in place, so we’re adding to a programme in a way that wasn’t planned. It had to be a knee-jerk response because of the funding becoming available – it’s forced us to be reactive which isn’t always ideal in delivering new supply. Despite this, we haven’t wanted to lower our ambitions on quality. For example, we’ve done many modern methods of construction (MMC) projects in the past, so it’s not necessarily a new approach, but we’re using it for the right solution. In terms of meeting the March deadline, there have been a few delays, particularly with the modular accommodation and the housing market supply ebbing and flowing through the various lockdowns however MHCLG and Housing England have been sensible where they can see we’re well advanced with plans.

Catherine:

MHCLG have been brilliant about what they want to achieve but, I agree, it’s not been particularly strategic. I think we should be looking at a system change instead; unfortunately it feels like we’re a million miles away from that. The idea of a ‘national asset’ is great, but moving people around is not true Housing First – it doesn’t allow people to put down roots.

What learnings have you taken from the process?

Andrew:

I think in the future, it would be beneficial for the co-ordination to come from either Housing England or MHCLG, rather than both. Looking ahead I personally feel, funding for years two and three needs to come out at the same time, so that we can plan accordingly. It would be much better to deliver extra supply rather than partly buying from the existing market stock. However, there’s always going to be a learning curve and ultimately this was a need in the sector that hadn’t been dealt with. We now have an opportunity to help deliver what we can in the short term and hopefully people will see the merits in medium term programmes to deliver the ambition of long term national assets.

Catherine:

We’ve been able to build on existing relationships which has been great; fortunately there was already a good deal of trust between Broadland and our local authorities, which made us a natural partner. We’ve worked more closely with other housing associations to make sure we’re co-ordinating, not competing in this area. The question now is ‘how do we continue to build on these positive relationships?’ From our point of view, it’s vital that we keep an open conversation going with both commissioners and strategic housing providers.

It’s also vital not to underestimate the importance of the third sector, which has provided strong support across the whole of the county during the crisis. We believe that if another provider can do something better, they should be the one doing it – no one agency needs to try to do everything. The partnership approach has definitely broken down some of the barriers that may have existed in the past, which is wonderful.

What positives have you taken from the process?

Catherine:

We’re lucky to be working in an organisation with the leadership of a CEO (Michael Newey) who is passionate about the need to end homelessness and a Board who unanimously support what we’re trying to do. Being a member of Homes for Cathy has certainly been instrumental in making that happen.

Andrew:

Being part of Homes for Cathy has also provided something for our development team to ‘sell’ to local authorities, allowing us to go in and talk to them about the need for more housing rather than temporary accommodation. We’re able to say to local authorities ‘we’re here to support you’ and local councillors know that Broadland is fully committed. Essentially it’s helped us cut through and sell our capability as a trusted partner to local authorities in the challenge to end homelessness.

One of the Homes for Cathy group’s founding members, Broadland Housing Association was formed in 1963 and built its first scheme, at Shipfield in Norwich, in 1967. Today it provides more than 5,000 quality homes across Norfolk and north Suffolk.