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Short on time? Thursday’s housing news in five minutes

A round-up of the top stories this morning from Inside Housing and elsewhere

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Top story: Number of homeless deaths in Scotland increases by almost 20% in one year

Latest figures from the Scottish government have revealed a major spike in the number of homeless people dying on the country’s streets. The figures released yesterday show there were 195 homeless deaths in 2018, up from 164 in 2017. A total of 104 were drug related.

Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator at the Scottish Tenants Organisation, said the “horrendous increase” reflects the failure of the Scottish government to deal with homelessness.

Scottish housing minister Kevin Stewart said the increase in drug-related deaths reflects the wider public health emergency Scotland is facing over drug deaths.

Click here to read full story

CIH launches mental health guide for professionals

As part of her presidency of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), which was launched last night, Aileen Evans has put tackling mental health firmly at the centre of what she wants to focus on during her one-year term.

As part of this move, Ms Evans and the CIH have now released a toolkit, which has been developed with mental health charity Mind, for housing professionals to use in order to assist them in being more aware of mental health issues and be supportive of other people’s conditions.

The guide gives advice on how to prioritise mental health in the workplace and develop a more positive culture to ensure better mental health outcomes.

The initiative, called Shine a Light, has been spearheaded by Ms Evans, who said her decision to focus on mental health and well-being during her presidency was an opportunity “to give something back to the profession and the people that supported me in my career”.

Click here to read full story

Lunchtime long read

Lunchtime long read

Illustration: Shonagh Rae

Inside Housing’s long read today looks into an innovative method one housing association has come up with to try and tackle mental health issues with tenants.

WDH has created a team of what it calls ‘mental health navigators’. These are trained individuals who are used to engage, support and assess tenants, and try to get them to a point where they can help tenants self-manage their mental health condition.

Read the full piece here

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

Picture: Simon Brandon

“If we ourselves are unwell, if we can’t bring compassion into what we do, then we can dehumanise the people we’re here to serve. We fail the people from whom everyone else may have already walked away.”

Here is an excerpt from new Aileen Evans’ inaugural speech as president of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Click here to read the full speech

In the papers

In the papers

Picture: Getty

The Guardian picks up on new figures from the National House Building Council which show that the number of new homes registered to be built in the UK last year was the highest it has been for 13 years. A total of 161,022 homes were registered with the organisation, which manages the registration of 80% of all new build homes in the UK. This was the highest figure since the start of the financial crisis. The number of affordable and rental homes rose 13% to 48,936 homes.

The Evening Standard reports on a drop in the number of renters coming to London from European Union (EU) countries. New figures from property technology company Goodlord found that the number of EU renters had dropped by 30% since 2017, following the Brexit vote.

Local news

Local news

Picture: Getty

The Northwich Guardian shows that the number of social housing evictions in Cheshire has dramatically increased over the past two years. In 2018/19, there were a total of 22 evictions. This compares with all previous years between 2011/12 and 2016/17, when there had never been more than 10 evictions. The previous high was in 2017/18, when there was 17 evictions.

Plans to build social housing on the site of a former “toxic” hospital site could break a United Nations (UN) health edict, according to Greenock Telegraph. The paper found that plans by Link Group to build on the site of the former Ravenscraig Hospital could be stopped over a UN regulation which says that housing should not be built on areas with harmful pollutants. Link Group plans to use ‘capping layers’ to act as barriers to the harmful chemicals pollution in the ground.

Around the sector

Around the sector

A housing association contract manager, who shed nearly six stone in two years, is fulfilling his dream of running the London Marathon while raising money for the charity he works for.

Simon Downton (left), 39, who works at The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, will be taking on the 26-mile route in April. The father-of-one from Castle Vale in Birmingham initially set out to lose weight to be a healthier dad. In 2016, he drastically changed his diet and tried running for the first time.

We want to hear from you! Tell us what your organisation and staff are doing, email editorial@insidehousing.co.uk.

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