working in partnership to tackle homelessness madeleine jeffery gerald wild special advisors...
TRANSCRIPT
Working in partnership to tackle homelessness
Madeleine JefferyGerald Wild
Special Advisors (Homelessness)Housing Corporation & CLGHomelessness Action Team
What has been achieved so far?
Improved quality of place & better outcomes for people:
– Housing supply increased to over 180,000;
– Number of non-decent social homes reduced by more than 1 million;
– Over 1 million vulnerable people helped each year through Supporting People;
– Significant reductions in homelessness;
– Reductions in the number of households in Temporary Accommodation
– Over 350 social landlords have signed up to the Housing Respect Standard for Housing Management
Key themes looking forward– Responsive services, empowered communities,
stronger place shaping role for councils (Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill);
– Independence, opportunity, personalisation and choice (The Supporting People Programme);
– Ensuring social housing acts as a platform for economic and social mobility (Hills Report);
– Regulation of social housing to encourage better management, new supply and tenant empowerment (Cave Review);
– Joining-up the delivery of housing and regeneration, and support local authorities in creating prosperous and cohesive communities (New Homes and Communities Agency);
– More homes to meet growing demand; well-designed and greener homes, and more affordable homes to buy or rent. (Housing Green Paper).
Taking forward the Hills report on the future roles of
social housing Though there is a strong emphasis on increasing the supply of housing, there is a continuing focus on improving existing housing and services to:
– Look at role social housing can play to help people back to work
– Support initiatives to help tenants to move where they wish to do so
– Increase opportunities into sustainable home ownership for tenants
– Deliver more mixed and cohesive communities
– Give tenants a greater voice
– Better meet the needs of older people
Rough Sleeping – key successes
– Target to reduce rough sleeping by two thirds by 2002 – target met in December 2001 a year ahead of time
– Numbers of Rough Sleepers in England have continued to reduce
– The 2007 estimate shows there are 498 people sleeping rough in England on any single night - a 73% reduction on the 1998 baseline
– Reductions are due to a strong partnership working approach
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Rough Sleeping in Rest of England Rough Sleeping in London
“Places of Change”•New £70m phase 2 bid round just announced – closing date Feb 08.
•£90million invested in around 178 projects in Phase 1
•Not just a housing pathway but Engagement, Education, Employment
• Delivering a culture change to the sector - “Not more beds but better beds”
• Real achievements:
• Positive move on doubled
• Numbers in employed doubled
• Fall in exclusions and abandonment
• New standards for the physical environment for h/less schemes
Hostels will cease to be places of last resort, but instead will be centres of excellence and choice which positively
change lives
Homelessness Acceptances – key successes
Progress
•Homelessness acceptances down 18% on 2006 and 50% since 2004
•15,960 acceptances (Apr- Jun 07) : lowest quarter since early 1980s
•Continued downward trend of acceptances since 2003
Temporary Accommodation – key Successes– 84,900 households in
temporary Accommodation on 30 June 2007, 10 per cent lower than this time last year
– Continued downward trend since 2005
– 87 per cent of households in TA were in self contained accommodation
– On track to meet target to halve numbers (to 50 500) in temporary accommodation by 2010
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
ENGLAND Projected Reported
Temporary Accommodation - LA priorities
– Temporary Accommodation Action Plans
– Supply and Demand Models
– Prevention Toolkit
– 2007 LA Survey – most effective activities to reduce Temporary Accommodation:
Increased Prevention Improved RSL nomination arrangements Making use of private sector TA visiting programme to provide options advice Increasing percentage of lettings to homelessness Conversion of own stock TA
Setting the context for RSLs.The Housing Corporation Homelessness Strategy
• Better partnership working• Sustainable and mixed
communities• Preventing homelessness• Making better use of existing
stock• Directing investment• Promoting good practice
Set up the Homelessness Action Team
Who are we working with? National Homelessness Team
- RSL Engagement In London:
– Positive engagement with all the G15 largest RSLs, housing 1 in 10 Londoners
– 2nd stage underway medium sized RSLs, BME, local “experts” and specialist associations
Nationally:– Meeting National RSLs – Sanctuary. P4P etc– Focus on large cities – Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester
and Sheffield etc will continue - with some real success– Currently developing a programme of work with RSLs in
the South West - rural, area based plans
Key challenges and outcomes for the homelessness team
• To achieve the 2010 temporary accommodation reduction target - TA reduction
• To improve the knowledge base -Myth busting
• To achieve an increased and sustained focus on homelessness in all housing sectors -Focus
• To maintain and improve relationships within the housing sector -Relationships
Reduction in the numbers in temporary accommodation
Develop homelessness action plans
• that badge existing work, consider new initiatives and challenge outlier performance
• Roll out jointly agree key performance measures to simplify plans and join up with other key partners
• develop tailored thematic, LA or area based plans to include all participants in the sector
Myth bustingGetting accurate facts and figures to inform
discussions
Challenge the myths around RSL performance
• RSLs significantly add to the burden of homelessness
• RSLs cherry pick tenant• RSLs don’t house homeless households• RSLs don’t have a central role to play
Evictions
• Total London RSL’s Evictions = 1636• Total stock = 340,614
• 0.48% of stock
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
55.0%
60.0%
65.0%
70.0%
75.0%
80.0%
85.0%
90.0%
(CORE 2006/07)
Largest London RSLs lettings via nominations
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
(CORE 2006/07)
Largest London RSLs lettings to stat. homeless
Developing relationships - breaking down the Barriers
• Encourage mature, proactive working relationships between Local Authorities and RSLs by targeting resources in a way that strengthens local partnerships
• Deliver Local Authority and sub regional homelessness strategies which underpin a co-ordinated approach
Focus on the bigger issues
Working through partnerships to progress key areas of strategic interest e.g:– Effectively using the PRS for move on– Temporary to permanent schemes– Nominations and lettings – who do we house
outside of noms; RSLs delivering Partners– Promoting the work of the RSL TA providers– Addressing illegal occupation and making
better use of our existing stock
Promoting RSLs workRaise the profile of the RSL contribution to
homelessness both locally, regionally and within Government
Promote good practice and link practioners – send us your summary and details of the colleagues driving these projects.
Hold workshops and attend homelessness events
Next steps
• Support organisations to develop and deliver on their action plans over the next 12 months
• Working with key stakeholders deliver the “bigger issues”
• Develop support networks across the sector with our homelessness champions
• Work with RSLs and LAs improving relationships through area planning
