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Fayann SimpsonFayann Simpson is a board member at Sustainability for Housing and chair of L&Q’s resident services board
We have a duty to provide services that enable residents to come together and create resilient communities
L&Q’s welfare calls have flagged people’s biggest concerns, so we repurposed budgets, staff and activity as a result, writes Fayann Simpson
Earlier this year, to mark the 72nd anniversary of the National Health Service, neighbours up and down the country stood on their doorsteps and clapped to show their appreciation. During lockdown, my neighbours and I came out every week to clap for carers.
The very act of all my neighbours coming out together to show a shared appreciation for our NHS has given me a greater connection to my community. As I stood on the doorstep, I spoke to neighbours, waved at people and thought about how the simple ‘Clap for Carers’ had become a unifying symbol of lockdown. What began as a tentative Thursday evening gesture became something which brought neighbours together and fostered a sense of community spirit that we have not seen for many years.
As the country went into lockdown, many older and vulnerable people in particular faced the prospect of total isolation. They were not worried about pubs and hairdressers closing, they were worried about getting access to food, medicine, vital health appointments and contact with the outside world in general.
Many of these people had no family, no social media, no internet. Community facilities they relied on were shut and media reports warned that supermarkets were running out of essential goods. It must have been a terrifying time for them.
But then, in those first awful weeks, we started to see the underlying resilience in our communities through the kindness of ordinary people. We saw people offering to go shopping for their older neighbours, strangers delivering hot meals to those in need, and people reaching out to those who are more isolated and excluded to check on their health and well-being.
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At Acton Gardens, a major regeneration scheme by L&Q and Countryside in west London, residents got together and formed a network of 150 volunteers to support older and vulnerable members of the community. The group works with young people and staff from the local youth centre to receive and deliver supplies from The Felix Project, a food distribution charity, twice a week.
The Clap for Carers idea brought random acts together into a national display of community cohesion. At one L&Q building in Walthamstow, east London, a group of talented street artists got permission from the association to paint a huge NHS mural, which has become a centrepiece of the community.
Everyone at L&Q is acutely aware that these are uniquely challenging times for residents. Teams have made tens of thousands of individual welfare calls since March to the most vulnerable residents to offer a wide range of guidance and support.
“In those first awful weeks [of lockdown], we started to see the underlying resilience in our communities through the kindness of ordinary people”
What we have found is that people’s concerns range from worries about money and employment, to illness and bereavement, to the wider impact on mental health of spending extended periods at home.
This is why L&Q has repurposed its community investment budgets to support residents, communities and community-led organisations throughout the crisis and beyond.
We know from previous research that a third of social housing residents have an existing mental health issue, and sadly this has increased during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. Residents have been offered help and signposted to support services. This support is both financial – such as help from L&Q’s tenancy sustainment team and Pound Advice service – and social, through community services.
Members of L&Q’s employment support team were also temporarily repurposed during the height of the pandemic to offer a befriending service. The service offered emotional and practical support to residents that were identified as vulnerable in welfare calls. One resident who used it said: “I felt lost and felt I had no one to turn to. I didn’t know who to ask for milk and bread. It’s been wonderful to know I have you to talk to and I know I can lean on you for any problems I have.”
Since April, the L&Q Foundation has also transformed some community centres into foodbanks and funded 20 community organisations to provide health and well-being activities to residents. These include St Christopher’s Hospice, Sport Inspired and Greenwich Coalition for Equality and Human Rights.
The ‘Stepping out of Lockdown’ training provided by L&Q’s employment support team has also helped residents with mental health difficulties. Those engaging with the programme said they benefitted from the peer support provided by other participants.
“This crisis has shown us how people will team up to help others when there is a clear sense of neighbourhood”
The impact of lockdown on our residents and communities will be long-lasting, and in some cases permanent. It is vital that organisations, such as L&Q, harness and nurture the community spirit we’ve seen over the past months.
L&Q’s main focus going forward will be on providing a good, reliable core service to all residents. But for older and vulnerable residents, there will be a more bespoke and supportive service delivered in partnership and collaboration with community organisations, charities, other housing associations, local authorities and the government.
We will continue to support grassroots organisations. We are also transforming our entire approach to resident engagement so that local voices are better heard and listened to, and resources are targeted where they are most needed.
We will design homes and places that better reflect new ways of working and socialising, and we will ensure that health and well-being remains our top priority in everything we do.
But we must never forget that it is people who create communities. This crisis has shown us how people will team up to help others when there is a clear sense of neighbourhood. As housing providers, we have a duty to provide homes and services that enable residents to come together and create resilient communities.
Fayann Simpson, resident board member, L&Q
