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Housing First projects and supported housing must work side-by-side
Ending homelessness requires a rethink of how local authorities are funded, says Tony Stacey
Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, launched Everybody In, a definitive solution to ending homelessness in this country earlier this year.
He explained his team had studied policy and best practice here and elsewhere and had pulled together a comprehensive solution to end homelessness once and for all.
“We don’t need more research,” he said, “nor do we need to wait. We know how to solve homelessness. It is just a question now of whether we have the will to do it.”
The solution will involve all of us – landlords, government, local authorities, the voluntary sector and people with lived experience of homelessness. As it says on the cover, we need Everybody In to co-create national and local solutions.
Central to the plan is the role of Housing First, the model of provision which builds on people’s strengths and doesn’t take, as its starting point, a set of hurdles which people have to overcome before they are housed.
You’re homeless? You must need housing, let’s find you something. It’s that simple. And it doesn’t matter how many times it hasn’t worked out for you in the past.
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South Yorkshire Housing Association runs a Housing First scheme in Rotherham in partnership with a local voluntary agency, Target, and Rotherham Council.
They are both great partners to work with and our scheme has been extremely successful. It is properly funded and is a genuine Housing First scheme which meets the fidelity criteria.
Six months in and 19 out of the 20 original residents have sustained their tenancies. Every single customer has a history of multiple tenancy breakdowns, and many are battling addictions, recovering from domestic violence and have faced exceptional trauma.
"The kind of projects funded by Supporting People grants need to work alongside Housing First."
Apart from these great outcomes, we know we have been getting this right because that’s what our customers tell us. One lady sent us this message: “The support is amazing. The staff don’t just listen, they help you to find a way to deal with your issues. I can now make plans for the future which I never would have in the past. I owe so much to Housing First for giving me this once-in-a-lifetime chance. I feel very lucky.”
But, but, but… Housing First is not the whole answer, and it is in danger of becoming the only game in town. The kind of projects funded by Supporting People grants need to work alongside Housing First to ensure we stop people slipping into the kind of situation where intensive, and by this stage, expensive solutions, are required.
But where else can beleaguered local authorities turn to for funding Housing First if they do not raid Supporting People budgets? If they have any Supporting People grant left in the first place that is.
Supported housing provides solutions for some hundreds of thousands of people with mental health problems, learning disabilities, and a whole array of different support needs.
The government’s new homelessness funding package is targeted at rough sleepers. There was no new support for supported housing. It’s fantastic – truly fantastic – that the government has reversed the threat of the Local Housing Allowance caps and dropped the ill-conceived alternatives.
But, if we really want to end homelessness and provide the support so many of us need at different stages in our lives, we must rethink how we support local authorities, and the new mayoral combined authorities, to fund this critical aspect of social care.
It was Cormac Russell, one of the international champions of Asset-Based Community Development, who said: “When we tire of pulling people out of the river, we may think to move upstream and stop them falling in.”
Tony Stacey, chief executive, South Yorkshire Housing Association
