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Crisis’ homelessness report must be a wake-up call for the sector
Anyone reading Crisis’ annual report on homelessness will have been left shocked. Here, David Bogle urges the sector to step up its efforts to avoid any possibility of being seen as part of the problem
Crisis’ Homelessness Monitor 2019 report, the subsequent commentary by The Guardian’s Patrick Butler and social media comments are another stark reminder of the expectations we face as a sector around homelessness and rough sleeping.
The Homes for Cathy group is now three years old. Formed by housing associations to highlight the anniversary of Ken Loach’s documentary-style drama and the fact that, 50 years on, there is still a homelessness crisis, the group has now grown to 80 members, including many of the largest housing association landlords.
So what is the Homes for Cathy group trying to achieve?
Well, clearly, we would like more capital and revenue resources from the government to tackle homelessness – to build more low-cost homes, to provide support for people moving into those homes, to improve welfare benefits etc.
Housing associations are already housing and supporting thousands of homeless people, but we believe they have the skills, experience and resources to do more.
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We have worked with Crisis to develop our nine Homes for Cathy commitments.
The things we would like to see include:
- Housing associations and their boards using the nine commitments to ‘audit’ their practices to ensure that they are not putting unnecessary and inflexible barriers in the way of both housing and sustaining the tenancies of homeless households and homeless people
- Housing associations and their boards developing performance indicators that measure their contribution to ending homelessness. For example, how many homeless households have been housed, how many rough sleepers have been housed, how many evictions into homelessness, how many evictions prevented
- Housing associations challenging themselves to do more for homeless people – maybe developing temporary housing units, offering short-term help with rent payments, appointing tenancy sustainment officers, partnering with local homelessness charities etc
- Recognition by the government and the regulator of the need to incorporate such indicators into governance standards and to encourage the sector to demonstrate social impact
We have seen from our work over the past three years that there is a very strong desire from housing association boards and staff to play a major and leading role in ending the homelessness crisis.
Homes for Cathy members are horrified by the thought of housing associations being seen as part of the problem rather than part of the solution to homelessness.
Let us work to make Crisis’ Homelessness Monitor reports next year, and in 2021, much better reading for the housing association sector.
David Bogle, chief executive, Hightown Housing Association
The nine Homes for Cathy commitments
The Homes for Cathy group of housing associations, working with housing charity Crisis, is asking its members to sign up to nine commitments to tackle homelessness:
They are:
- To contribute to the development and execution of local authority homelessness strategies
- To operate flexible allocations and eligibility polices which allow individual applicants’ unique sets of circumstances and housing histories to be considered
- To offer constructive solutions to applicants who aren’t deemed eligible for an offer of a home
- To not make homeless any tenant seeking to prevent their homelessness (as defined in the Crisis plan)
- To commit to meeting the needs of vulnerable tenant groups
- To work in partnership to provide a range of affordable housing options which meet the needs of all homeless people in their local communities
- To ensure that properties offered to homeless people are ready to move into
- To contribute to ending migrant homelessness in the areas housing associations operate
- To lobby, challenge and inspire others to support ending homelessness
Cathy at 50 campaign
Our Cathy at 50 campaign calls on councils to explore Housing First as a default option for long-term rough sleepers and commission Housing First schemes, housing associations to identify additional stock for Housing First schemes and government to support five Housing First projects, collect evidence and distribute best practice.
