Tameside Homelessness Strategy

Mission Statement

"Working within a multi-agency framework to break the cycle of homelessness through the provision of good quality advice, a range of accommodation and effective support services."

"As agencies, we need to co-operate with one another within a multi-agency framework to make sure the Homelessness Strategy is a success. We see this very much as a working document that we need to review and update to ensure that it achieves its aims and reflects the needs of homeless people in Tameside over the next five years."

Lesley Ward
Chair of the Tameside Homelessness Forum

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Foreword - Cllr John Taylor

Executive Summary - Brief Outline of the Strategy

Chapter 1 - Introduction and Context

1. Background to Tameside and its' Partnerships / Tameside Strategic Partnership
2. Greater Manchester Context
3. Legal Context
4. Supporting People

Chapter 2 - Homelessness Review

Chapter 3 - Information and Monitoring

Chapter 4 - 'At Risk' Groups

Chapter 5 - Accommodation Issues

Chapter 6 - Prevention

Chapter 7 - Sustaining Tenancies/Resettlement

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Foreword

This Homelessness Strategy has been long awaited by the agencies and people of Tameside. It is an excellent opportunity to take stock of homeless trends, services and demand since Tameside MBC transferred its stock in 2000, and for actions to be carried out in a multi-agency way.

The Tameside Homelessness Forum will be the group responsible for monitoring and assisting in the implementation of this Strategy and this will serve as the linchpin of its work plan for the next 5 years.

In turn, this will be monitored by the Housing Partnership, which links to the Local Authority's highest strategic groups.

The Strategy will be updated annually. Great things are expected of this Strategy as it follows the Audit Commission inspection of the Homelessness and Housing Advice Service in 2002, and the continuous improvement expected by the Council of the service provider, New Charter.

All other agencies, however, have a vital role to play in monitoring and implementing the improvements in the Strategy, and will influence policy making and service delivery forthwith.

This document has been written from the Homelessness Review, which took place between September 2002 and March 2003. To see a copy of the Review, or if you would like to comment on its contents, please contact Elaine Kaye at Tameside MBC on 0161 342 2608. Alternatively, you can leave comments on our website which is www.tameside.gov.uk.

Cllr John Taylor
Cabinet Member for Housing

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Executive Summary

Chapter One - Introduction

• Provides a background to the borough and the recent changes in terms of the stock transfer
• Sets out the legislative framework and how the Homelessness Strategy links with the other strategic areas of the Council's work

Chapter Two - The Review

• Summarises the work conducted to inform the strategy which was required by legislation to consider the current and future levels of homelessness, services that provide support and accommodation as well as prevent homelessness
• Main findings included an increase in the number of homeless applicants of 28%, increase in the use of temporary accommodation as a result and good multi-agency working
• Summarises the consultation work that was carried out

Chapter Three - Information and Monitoring

• Identifies the need to collect better statistics to identify needs of all homeless people as well as specific groups not accessing the service at present eg BME households
• Investigate the possibility of developing common monitoring procedures
• Improved collection of data on repeat presentations to the Housing Options Centre

Chapter Four - 'At Risk' Groups

• Focuses on the need to collect statistics on the numbers, provision available, the barriers and recommendations for 16/17 year olds, applicants with mental health issues, substance misuse problems and former prisoners
• Highlights the need to do further research on needs of asylum seekers as well as the barriers facing them in getting rehousing, as well as implementing a wider strategy to assist BME communities

Chapter Five - Accommodation Issues

• Conduct an audit of temporary accommodation, as well as admission criteria of this accommodation and provide recommendations
• Support proposals to change temporary accommodation at Gibson Terrace
• Ensure minimum standards in private rented accommodation and improve education to landlords and tenants about rights

Chapter Six - Prevention

• Develop domestic violence good practice guidelines to strengthen multi-agency approach
• Develop links to schools to provide information on prevention to young people
• Enhance housing advice to single homeless people
• Publicise Housing Options Service and housing rights information to estate management offices

Chapter Seven - Sustaining Tenancies/Resettlement

• Research costs of tenancy support schemes to compare to costs of eviction process and raise awareness of benefits of early intervention and develop links between agencies to achieve this
• Audit current support provision and possibility of developing scheme to provide advocacy and anti-exclusion scheme
• Pilot project with Ashton Renewal for greater support with occupation and providing employment opportunities for homeless households

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Chapter One - Introduction and Context

1) Background to Tameside and its Partnerships

Tameside Metropolitan Borough was created in 1974. Seven miles east of Manchester, it has a geographical area of 40 square miles and a population of just under 250,000. It is comprised of 9 main towns. The Council has predominantly been a Labour-held Council.

The Council and its key partners (local public agencies, local MPs, regional bodies, business leaders and voluntary sector personnel) established the Tameside Community Forum (now Tameside Local Strategic Partnership) in June 1999. It published the Tameside first's Community Strategy in June 2000, and has just completed the Community Strategy for 2003-6, committing ourselves and our partners to a shared set of actions and targets. A partnership framework (see diagram on next page) was developed under the umbrella of the LSP, which received Government Office Accreditation in February 2002. The Council's key themes for the borough, as set out in its Community Strategy are: Supportive Communities; A Safe Environment; A Prosperous Society; A Learning Community; A Healthy Population; and An Attractive Borough.

To address issues relating to housing, the Tameside Housing Partnership was formed in 1999 and is a group of statutory and private housing organisations, residents and housing professionals. The Partnership's first task was the 3 year Housing Strategy, published in 2001. The Tameside Homelessness Forum is the most important sub group of the Housing Partnership in relation to the Homelessness Strategy. This Forum is a multi-agency group that meets bi-monthly to address the needs of homeless people in Tameside. It is chaired and serviced by representatives from the voluntary sector to ensure that a level of independence is always retained.

This Forum has contributed to the review of homelessness in Tameside by forming a sub 'working' group and carrying out client consultation, and from August 1st 2003 will be responsible, on behalf of the Tameside Housing Partnership, for monitoring and assisting in the implementation of this Homelessness Strategy.

In 2000, the Council undertook the largest stock transfer of the time, transferring nearly 17,000 Council homes to New Charter Housing Trust. To provide continuity to applicants and as the transfer organisation would be the largest landlord in the Borough, Housing Advice and Homelessness was contracted out to New Charter.

This change in role has been substantial. Since 2000, the Council's Housing Strategy section has grown in number from one to twelve. The Housing Service now comprises of Housing Standards, Private Sector Housing Renewals, the Supporting People Team, Energy Efficiency and Housing Strategy. It is through these roles and with the above and other partners that this Strategy will be delivered and monitored.

In carrying out both the review and strategy we have taken a multi-agency approach to ensure that the strategy is inclusive, strengthens existing partnerships and ensures that agencies feel they have ownership of the strategy. From the start, we developed a multi-agency steering group comprising of statutory and voluntary sector representatives, we held stakeholder consultation days in November 2002 and January 2003, as well as carrying out almost 20 more detailed interviews with agencies. We carried out comprehensive consultation with service users, in semi-structured surveys that clients completed themselves or with a worker. We also conducted focus groups with some clients in temporary accommodation. In carrying out this work, we hope that our strategy reflects the comments and input from all the agencies and clients that took part in the exercises and we would like to thank everyone for their invaluable input.

2) The Greater Manchester Context

Tameside contributes to many Greater Manchester ('GM') Authority partnerships, including administering the Greater Manchester Homelessness Forum. Our homelessness trends are similar to many of the GM authorities, with areas of low demand terraced housing, poor social housing which was built over 50 years ago and areas of social exclusion and deprivation. Many of our Borough-wide initiatives focus on regeneration of poorer areas or areas suffering inequalities of service or provision.

Unlike many GM authorities though, Tameside does not experience regular rough sleepers and due to a shortage of supported housing places, relies too heavily on Bed and Breakfast accommodation as a source of temporary accommodation. In the last 10 years, many new supported housing schemes and hostel developments have been built in the Borough, resulting in new local partners arriving into the Borough and building new working relationships. However, we are aware that there is still a large unmet demand for better temporary accommodation in the area and this demand will only be increased by the latest changes to the Homelessness legislation.

3) The Legal Context: The Homelessness Act 2002

It is several years since the Homelessness legislation underwent such major changes. On July 31st 2002, the Act changed many of its provisions on homelessness, changed the Allocations framework in January 2003 and obliged all Local Authorities to have their Homelessness Strategies published by July 2003. When it came into force in July 2002, the Act widened the categories of people whom the Council has a legal duty to assist, both in terms of homelessness assistance, and changed the terms and priorities for the Council's Housing Register in January 2003. Due to these changes, Local Authorities expect to see increases in service user numbers and differing circumstances in the future, and the Housing Register will also operate under new provisions. Some of the objectives in this Strategy refer to the 'new' Housing Register proposals: - the Council and its partners will shortly be collecting new 'baseline' information on users of the Homelessness service and Housing Register, following the Act's changes. The proposed changes to the Register are in Chapter 7.

4) Supporting People

This programme is coordinated by a team at the Council and went live in April 2003. It involved a mapping exercise, which ensured that all housing support within Tameside was mapped and quantified. This produced valuable information about the providers in Tameside, which in turn has highlighted gaps in services. The SP programme will also review each support scheme over a 2 year period, and this information will build a picture of the quality and demand for support services in the Borough. In this Strategy you will find many references to the Supporting People information or monitoring, as this will be an important source of information for the development of future support services in the Borough.

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Chapter Two - Homeless Review

This chapter summarises the information that has been collected as part of the Homelessness Review in Tameside. This review was carried out by the Tameside Homelessness Forum to identify the extent of homelessness and the variety of services that work with homeless households and the resources available. A full, more in-depth 'Homelessness Strategy Review' is available on the Tameside website (www.tameside.gov.uk) or from the Housing Strategy Department (0161 342 2558). The review also identified a number of gaps in the information available, and one aim of the Homelessness Strategy is to fill these gaps. These gaps are outlined in Chapter Three of this document.

Definition of Homelessness

The 'Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities - ODPM 2002' states that, "Someone is statutorily homeless if they do not have accommodation that they have a legal right to occupy, which is accessible and physically available to them (and their household) and which it would be reasonable for them to continue to live in. It would not be reasonable for someone to continue to live in their home, for example, if that was likely to lead to violence against them (or a member of their family)." In our strategy we have tried to look outside this definition to include all homeless people, not only statutory cases in order that we can provide a service that is inclusive to all homeless or potentially homeless people.

Statistics

In trying to gain a picture of homelessness, we looked at figures from the Housing Options Centre and other key agencies throughout Tameside who deal with homeless people.

Homeless Applications to the Housing Options Centre

The government asks for information on all households who make a homeless application, breaking the applications down into the decisions received. Therefore, applicants are recorded as 'Not homeless' (they may have been able to continue to occupy their accommodation), 'Ineligible' (due to Asylum and Immigration issues), 'not in priority need' (they were people who were not deemed to be vulnerable under the terms of the Homelessness legislation), 'intentionally homeless' (they had avoidably contributed to their own homelessness) or 'accepted' (they passed on all the previous tests and would be rehoused) but only collects further information on those households who have been accepted and are therefore eligible to be rehoused.

This graph shows the Homeless Decisions made by the Housing Options Centre on people who apply to them as homeless over the last four years.

• Homelessness applications have more than doubled in 4 years and are rising by an average of 28% each year.
• The number of those accepted as eligible for re-housing as a proportion of total applications has reduced.
• The main area of expansion is in 'Not homeless' and 'Not in priority need' (i.e. although they are homeless, they are not in urgent need of re-housing due to vulnerability) decisions
  This may point to better housing advice or stricter application of the law, due to demand.
• If 1002 people are not making it into the 'system' (i.e. are not accepted), but 598 are, we need to focus on the numbers who are not, for monitoring.

The following graph provides a breakdown of the 598 households who were accepted for re-housing in 2001/02.

However, by analysing the accepted homeless categories, we are leaving out the vast majority of homeless single people who may not be deemed to be in priority need.

• In 2001-02, most accepted applicants were households with one child, followed by those with two children.
• Domestic violence was the most common reason for loss of settled home, followed by termination of Assured Shorthold Tenancy and the 'Other Reason' category (homeless in emergency, returned from abroad, sleeping rough).
• The number of homeless under 25s increased by 15% between 2000 and 2002.
• The percentage of homeless applications from ethnic minorities has risen from 0.49% in 200-2001 to 5.3% in 2002-2003. The graph below highlights this trend.
  However, these figures are at least in part the result of greater number of former Asylum Seekers coming through the homelessness route.

• Any conclusions from this data only apply to accepted homeless, not the 1002 others who were not accepted.

Housing Register

The number of households on the TMB Housing Register rose from 7898 in 2000 to 9012 in March 2003, which is an increase of over 500 households each year. The Housing Register is too large to be efficient as the current numbers registered would equal almost half of the total social housing stock available and is roughly twelve times greater than voids available at any one time. Applicants on the Housing Register are assessed, and properties are normally allocated to those applicants who have the greatest housing need such as homeless applicants. However, the process needs to be more efficient, and must monitor excluded households.

Other Key Agencies

Citizens Advice Bureau
In 2001/02, the CAB had a total of 8303 enquiries from customers who had a total of 15815 'problems'.

NB Due to the way the CAB records queries, this is likely to be an under representation of housing related problems because many will also be recorded as debt or benefits problems.

Tameside County Court
In 2001/02 Tameside County Court dealt with 1173 Rent Possession cases and 435 Mortgage cases. A low proportion of defendants attended their cases (21% for Rent Possessions and 40% for Mortgage cases).

Probation Statistics
The Homelessness Act 2002 added new categories for priority, which included those vulnerable due to having spent time in custody. Probation has undertaken 691 assessments of the needs of 576 of their clients. Of these assessments 124 identified a 'moderate or serious accommodation/neighbourhood problem score'. Of these:

Key support needs were:-

Most offenders had three or more problems.

Leaving Care
Social Care and Health statistics from the 'Annual return for Child Protection Information for 2001/02' show that there were 258 'looked after children' (children cared for by Social Care and Health because they can not live with their families) in Tameside. The majority of these (138 out of 258) were aged 10 - 17, which means that over the next few years there will be a large number of 16 and 17 year olds leaving the care system. These young people will have high support needs.

Hidden Homelessness Research
A research project was conducted through the Homelessness Forum to identify the number of applicants applying and being accepted into supported housing schemes in Tameside and the support needs of these applicants over the period of a month.

The study showed that the majority of people applying to schemes had been referred from Social Care and Health or the Housing Options Centre. Support needs varied depending on:

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity

The most common support needs identified were (number brackets is % with each support need)

• Budgeting (20.3%)
• Independent living (19.8%)
• Employment (16.7%)
• Drug misuse (14.2%)
• Mental Health (11.8%)
• Emotional Support (11.1%)
• Offending (11.1%)

The most striking finding was that only 25% of applicants to the Women's Refuge and 11.8% of applicants to other schemes were admitted. Half of those of those not admitted were turned down because the scheme was full.

The information collected has proved very useful, and so one objective of the strategy will be collecting this information on a six monthly basis.

In December 2001, an exercise to count the number of Rough Sleepers took place, as homelessness figures were increasing and we wanted to ascertain whether numbers of rough sleepers were increasing in line with this figure. The exercise was conducted jointly by Housing Strategy and the Housing Aid Centre and they found one rough sleeper (awake) and evidence of two others. However, it is not only people who sleep on the streets that are homeless. Most homeless households are in temporary or insecure accommodation, or are staying with friends or family on a short-term basis (referred to as 'sofa surfing').

Consultation with Service Users

In addition to the client consultation that took place as part of the Housing Aid and Homelessness service review, surveys were carried out with people who had experienced homelessness in Tameside. Most of the information was gathered in semi-structured surveys that individuals have either completed by themselves or alongside a worker. In addition small Discussion Groups were run at Grosvenor St, Westbrook House and at the Women's Refuge. The aim of the exercise was to gather perceptions from homeless people with regard to the causes and background factors of their own homelessness.

They were asked what services had helped and what services were not available to them that could have helped either prevent their homelessness or resolve it more quickly. Full details are in the 'Homelessness Strategy Review', the main points to come out of the consultation were:

• Prevention of Homelessness
  • Education
  • Help with relationships
  • Support
  • Accessing Services
    
• Once Homeless - What would have helped?
  • Counselling
  • Emergency Accommodation/Supported Housing
  • Access to Move On Accommodation
  • Information/Help line
  • Something to occupy time
  • Prison Liaison

Consultation with Relevant Agencies
(Agencies that deal with Homeless Households, not necessarily dealing with the housing issue)

There are a lot of agencies and council departments that work with individuals and households who are homeless or at risk of becoming so. We carried out a number of interviews to identify what work they do and the issues they are facing. The agencies interviewed include:-

• Connexions and Job Centre
• Drug and Alcohol Team
• Education (including Tameside College, Education Welfare Officer, Travellers co-ordinator)
• Police
• Primary Care Trust (including Health visitor for Gibson Terrace, Homeless Families Unit)
• Probation
• Social Care and Health (including Out of Hours team, Mental Health team, Hospital discharge team, Asylum seekers team)
• Teenage Pregnancy co-ordinator

Some of the main issues raised related to the stereotyping of Homeless people, lack of information sharing and the lack of accommodation providing support for those who needed assistance with tenancy sustainment.

This Review built on the Best Value- type review carried out by the Council on the Homelessness & Housing Advice service in 2001-2, which was used by the Audit Commission in their top-up inspection of the service in June 2002. This Review, therefore, has been the final piece of work to finish off the scrutiny and consultation which the service has been subject to in recent years. It has been a good opportunity to act on what is already known about the service, and respond to the service users and partners who took part in the consultation.

More information is available on these topics in the 'Homelessness Strategy Review', which is available on our website www.tameside.gov.uk.

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Chapter Three - Information and Monitoring

In carrying out the review and trying to quantify the levels of homelessness and future levels of homelessness, it was identified that information gathering and monitoring was a key area for improvement. This chapter sets out some of the main areas we wish to focus on.

Information and Monitoring

In the last few years, homelessness has risen at a steep rate both nationally and locally and due to the new Homelessness Act 2002 provisions; we are expecting to see a further rise during the life of this Strategy. However, while the first year of the Strategy may see an increase in homelessness, we are optimistic that with the prevention and support objectives, which will be achieved in the Strategy's life span, we will bring these increased levels down.

To be able to monitor the success of this Strategy, and because the Homelessness Review told us that there were several areas where we needed to improve our information and monitoring, the following are areas which will lead to better understanding of homelessness locally and were identified as gaps in our Review:

BME Groups

Prior to the Homelessness Review, we knew that the Homelessness service was not accessed proportionately by applicants of BME groups. In addition, we were aware that while housing needs studies were being undertaken in Tameside, one specifically on the housing needs of BME communities, questions about homelessness had not arisen out of these assessments. Therefore an important task for this Strategy is to improve our understanding of the differing needs of the communities within Tameside and to ensure that all homeless services are equally accessible to all members of the community. This task has been made even more important by the rehousing of asylum seekers in Tameside, with many more households expected by 2005.

Statistics taken from the 2001 National Census indicate that Tameside has an ethnic population of 5.4% (www.statistics.gov.uk ). Previous research highlighted that there are particular areas where Tameside's Black and Minority Ethnic (B&ME) communities are based. Tameside's Indian and Pakistani communities are primarily based within the Ashton St Peters Ward, and the main Bangladeshi community is located in Hyde Godley.

Figures collected for the DTLR P1E returns indicate that 5.3% of homeless applications at the Housing Options Centre were from members of local B&ME communities. Although this appears to be a fair representation, a large number of Asylum Seekers are forced though the homelessness route, thus skewing the overall ethnic monitoring picture. Further evidence which suggests that Tameside's homelessness services are not accessed by B&ME communities is the fact that a particular supported housing scheme is based in the heart of Tameside's Bangladeshi community, yet receives few applications / referrals from Bangladeshi communities.

Table: Homelessness Applications Broken Down by Ethnicity

	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003
White	1213	1529	1839
African/Caribbean	0	6	5
Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi	6	42	34
Other Ethnic Origin	0	21	60
Ethnic Origin not known	1	5	5

Research carried out during the homelessness review has touched upon issues surrounding access to services from B&ME communities, for instance, the Hidden Homelessness research project and client consultation. However, we recognise that there is a gap in our knowledge and understanding here and our aims are to understand more about:
How appropriate the Homelessness and Housing advice service is for BME groups
How to improve the service for BME groups
Whether translation and interpreting services need improvement and how
In conjunction with the BME Housing Group, whether existing housing services cater for the needs of these groups.

Action. To carry out research into this group and develop strategy to address these areas

Repeat applications:

We know from casework samples and consultation that many homeless applicants have been homeless before. This might mean that they were not assisted the first time or that they were rehoused but their reason for homelessness was not resolved. Some people re-apply because a violent ex-partner has found them again, or because they experience problems with their new tenancy. To be able to fully understand homelessness trends, and whether homeless people are getting the service they need, we need to measure why people make new applications if they have applied previously. We therefore intend to ask applicants whether they have presented as homeless previously and if so, what caused their homelessness to recur. We can then use this information to influence services to reduce this.

Action. Develop new IT system and application form to record repeat homelessness

In addition, applicants may become homeless recurrently because they are refused for permanent social housing, for example, via the Council's Housing Register, and they therefore have to rent privately or stay with friends for an indefinite period. The Council is concerned that exclusion should be the exception and not the norm for many people with previous rent arrears or support needs and as part of its proposed new Housing Register will be monitoring why people get excluded much more closely. This will lead to better understanding of what support schemes need to be in place to assist those applicants who may ordinarily find themselves ineligible for social housing. It is the Strategy's aim to contribute to making the Housing Register a more successful, speedy route to rehousing, with closer monitoring of instances where this may not occur.

Action. To review the current housing register, to improve access for homeless people and to monitor exclusions. Develop system for recording this information

Better provision for single homeless people:

Because of the way information on homelessness is recorded, single people and their reasons for homelessness & support needs are not documented as well as those households (usually families) who will eventually be rehoused. For example, out of the 1600 people who applied as homeless in 2002-3, 1002 were not accepted for rehousing, 634 of which were homeless but not in priority need. It is important that we understand causes of homelessness across the board and do not make assumptions based on figures for a certain proportion of the community.

Those 'non-priority' people will benefit from the new legislation which has an enhanced obligation to offer them tailored advice and assistance, but due to their numbers it is important to ensure that this group receive a service which will assist them to find their own accommodation and retain existing accommodation. Monitoring their causes of homelessness, support needs and circumstances will assist in long term planning and decision making about homeless applicants.

Action. Collect P1E information on all applicants, including non-statutory homeless

Common recording and monitoring systems:

The Hidden Homelessness exercise which was carried out in November 2002 showed a dramatic unmet demand for supported accommodation. To monitor this demand, the exercise should be repeated, and it has been suggested that simple changes to supported housing scheme application forms could give us this information on a regular basis. In addition, the Supporting People team will gather valuable information on the demand for supported housing and other schemes as well as examining admission criteria and exclusions from schemes.

There are some areas where we need to commission research or set up new ways of finding out information, which will help us monitor homelessness trends in future. One of these areas is what's known as the 'Revolving Door' of homelessness where clients with high needs encounter barriers to housing or other services. We are aware that certain groups of clients give special cause for concern, as they need more assistance or specific services for them to succeed and not become homeless recurrently. These groups include people with substance misuse issues, mental health or a combination of these. One objective, therefore, is to commission research via the Drug Action Team into the trends and problems of Tameside's substance misusing homeless which will enable better commissioning of services in the future.

Action. Repeat 'Hidden Homeless' exercise

Action. Establish links with supporting people to gather common data

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Chapter Four - 'At Risk' Groups

This chapter focuses on groups of people whose housing needs or recurring homelessness are of particular concern, or require a special strategic focus. These groups were frequently raised during the consultation for the Strategy as of particular concern, and many agencies and clients reported the extreme difficulties that were encountered when trying to get secure and settled accommodation for these groups. For these groups, a more strategic and over-arching approach is required. It is therefore the intention of the Strategy to focus some specific and targeted work on each of these groups with the theme of identifying numbers, provision, barriers to gaining accommodation and then making recommendations about each group. These groups are:

• 16 and 17 year olds, with secondary group of people under 25 generally
• Applicants with mental health problems
• Substance misusers (ie those people who misuse drugs or alcohol)
• Former prisoners or those coming out of prison
• Asylum Seekers

16 and 17 year olds and under 25s

Over the 12 month period between April 2002 to March 2003, the number of individual 16 and 17 year olds who presented as homeless to Social Care and Health numbered 100. The number of different contacts this amounted to over the same period came to 254 which gives an indication of the ongoing support needs young homeless people are presenting with.

There is some expectation that the numbers of 16 and 17 year olds presenting as homeless will increase due to the transfer of the service to the Housing Options Centre in April 2003 and with the increased duties owed to them under the provisions of the 2002 Homelessness Act. In response to this, a new post of a Young Persons Housing Officer has been created at the Housing Options Centre to interview and assess all homeless young people. A key part of this role will be to provide an accessible and young person-centred service that is able to perform an ongoing support and advocacy role whilst young people remain in temporary accommodation. In addition, the Council was fortunate to receive funding from the Homelessness Directorate towards a strategic Young Person's Accommodation Development post. This Coordinator will be crucial in providing a strategic input regarding where the major gaps in services are and facilitating young peoples views being heard. Through these two specific workers, the Council has aimed resources to improve both the frontline and strategic services to homeless 16 and 17 year olds simultaneously.

Current provision for 16 and 17 year olds is based on three supported housing projects and a Supported Lodgings Scheme run by Social Care and Health. There is a need to expand this provision and all partners will be working closely together through the Young Persons Accommodation Development Group and other multi Agency forums to identify how resources can best be utilized and to establish a strategic approach to the issue.

The key objectives within the Young Person's Accommodation Development Coordinator's Workplan for developing further improvements for young people are:

• To increase the quantity of temporary accommodation placements in supported housing schemes available to young people.
• To expand the number of appropriate emergency housing placements available to 16 and 17 year olds who present as homeless.
• To remove some of the barriers that prevent many young people from gaining their own independent tenancies.
• To ensure that young homeless people have a means of providing an input into a Youth Housing Strategy either by creating their own forum or using other interest groups to further this agenda.

People with mental health problems

We recognise that people with mental health problems often have problems accessing services and accommodation and are more likely to be affected by housing issues. Through contact within the Community Legal Services Partnership, a multi agency outreach service was set up in 2002 to address some of these problems. The appointments system is managed by the Welfare Rights Service at Tameside MBC and clients can access help with housing advice, welfare advice and money advice. The service enables clients to get advice and advocacy in places that they would ordinarily visit and feel comfortable seeing people, such as the Mental Health Inpatient Unit within the hospital. This service has been successful in providing services to people who were previously reluctant to gain advice and has helped with the prevention of homelessness and forged links between the agencies providing the outreach and the mental health services. There are still some issues with clients who may be homeless who are not being identified and referred automatically to the service for assistance. The service will continue to work with the mental health services to advertise the outreach sessions with the aim of reaching more clients.

The Community Mental Health Team and the Community Rehabilitation Team deal with large numbers of people who frequently face barriers accessing and maintaining accommodation. At present, there is a clear need to identify the requirements of this group of people and gain greater understanding between the Mental Health Service and Housing. From this, we need to develop options for people who are being supported by these teams, not only on a long term basis, but those who have shorter episodes of mental health problems over a long period. The Mental Health Service have appointed an Accommodation Manager who will be reviewing and developing the Mental Health Accommodation Strategy. It is hoped through this work, we will be able to strengthen links and gain an accurate picture of need for this client group in the future.

Substance misusers

The Council's Community Safety and Housing Strategy Teams were granted funding for two projects by the DAAT (Drug and Alcohol Team). The first of these is commissioning specific research into the local prevalence of homelessness and its connection with substance misuse. This project will examine the numbers, provision and barriers that are faced by this group and will enable strategic and commissioning decisions to be made to improve services to them.

The second project is to appoint a Coordinating Link worker for Housing and Substance Misuse who will act upon the findings of the research project and make links between relevant accommodation and substance misuse providers to strategically influence access to accommodation and support for this group.

Former prisoners or those coming out of prison

It is extremely difficult to predict when prisoners will be discharged, yet their success in not re-offending is seriously influenced by their accommodation on discharge. As all former prisoners who may be vulnerable due to their incarceration are now deemed to be vulnerable under the Homelessness legislation, it is now extremely important that Housing and the Prison service work together to offer prisoners the best route to secure rehousing and minimize their chances of re-offending. It is not known how many former prisoners approach Tameside agencies each year, but the barriers they encounter are well reported and usually include being excluded from Housing Associations' and the Council's Housing Registers and they may find themselves in very transient accommodation. This strategy aims to improve the rehousing circumstances of prisoners through seeking examples of good practice and establishing better links with the Prison Service and Probation. There are established prison-based housing advice services both locally and regionally, such as English Churches Housing Association, which works in Forest Bank and Manchester Prison and Prison Link that works with short term prisoners on a regional basis. This strategy aims to link with these services to identify ways of improving services to former and current prisoners.

Asylum Seekers

At present, there are 315 Asylum Seekers in Tameside (inclusive of men, women and children). However, each Local Authority has been set a 'cluster limit', which determines the number of Asylum Seekers they can expect based on their population. While a large number of the Greater Manchester Local Authorities have reached their limit, Tameside has not. This means that Tameside stands to receive many hundred new asylum seekers before 2005.

Town	November 01	November 02	Cluster
Blackburn	512	724	700
Bolton	988	1169	1338
Burnley	135	69
Bury	429	629	914
Manchester	1639	1722	2149
Nelson	140	66
Oldham	309	612	1096
Rochdale	372	443	1041
Salford	606	1216	1130
Stockport	128	263	1464
Tameside	796	313	1102
Trafford	73	116	1102
Wigan	627	841	1553

The Homelessness Review highlights the need for a proactive service for Asylum Seekers who are granted leave to remain. The weakness of the current system is that when an Asylum Seeker is notified by the Home Office that they have been granted leave to remain, they are often given less than 10 days to find alternative independent accommodation. However, a combination of system delays and language & culture barriers can often result in a refugee being evicted from their NASS (National Asylum Seekers Support Service) accommodation before an alternative tenancy has been secured, thus pushing them through the homelessness route automatically.

The recommendation made during the review was to appoint a re-settlement worker who would liaise directly with NASS, accommodation providers and the Asylum Seekers themselves to ensure that notification of their decision is received as soon as possible and applications for re-housing are completed accurately and immediately. The Homelessness and Housing Strategy team are currently working closely with Supporting People and the Asylum Team to explore possibilities of this appointment. The teams are also working strategically to influence where new asylum seekers may be placed by property providers in the Borough to ensure resources are not strained and communities are matched as far as possible.

Action. To establish numbers, provision, barriers to rehousing and recommendations for these groups - young people, people with mental health problems, people with substance misuse problems, former prisoners and asylum seekers

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Chapter Five - Accommodation Issues

Due to the reasons set out in chapters 1 and 2 the new measures brought in by the Homelessness Act 2002 are likely to place greater demand on existing homelessness provisions. As highlighted by the Council's CPA inspection, Tameside currently uses B&B accommodation and other inappropriate temporary accommodation too frequently, an issue also recognised by service users and stakeholders alike. Government guidance now states that this should be reduced to having no families or pregnant households in B&B accommodation for longer than 6 weeks by March 2004 (unless in an emergency). In order to improve the provision of temporary accommodation Tameside needs to look to improve existing systems and accommodation, explore various channels to create more temporary accommodation and increase access to permanent housing for ALL homeless applicants.

Firstly, the homelessness review indicated that we need to fulfil an audit of the quality, quantity and accessibility of all accommodation available to people experiencing homelessness.

Audit of temporary accommodation

As previously mentioned, compared to other local authorities within Greater Manchester there is less supported accommodation for homeless people in Tameside and consequently Tameside relies too heavily on the use of B&Bs, particularly for young and single people. This issue was highlighted by the CPA inspection in 2002 that recommended a review of the use of temporary accommodation in Tameside, an objective that also arose from the homelessness review. Thus, an aim of this Strategy is to conduct an audit of all temporary accommodation used within Tameside and assess need and aspirations for more appropriate, better quality temporary accommodation. This objective could be achieved through the Housing Options Centre, customer surveys and consultation with the Homelessness Forum and the results fed into the commissioning of services that the Supporting People Core Commissioning Group will do.

Action. Audit current provision of temporary accommodation

Action. Reduce length of stay for families and pregnant households in B&B accommodation to a maximum of 6 weeks in an emergency (Best Value Performance Indicator 183)

Action. Support proposals to changes to temporary accommodation at Gibson Terrace

Inset: Gibson Terrace Gibson Terrace is the Homeless Families Unit in Tameside and has 24 units of accommodation made up of bedsits and two bedroom maisonettes. It has been used as the HFU for some time, and is a listed building in the Ashton Renewal Area. It has long been an objective of the Council and New Charter to change this provision, and an options appraisal was carried out in 2002. It was decided that the quickest and most cost-effective way of improving the scheme was to refurbish the building with resources from the Council, New Charter and the Housing Corporation. However, some changes have already been made. In 2002, the staff team significantly expanded and started to work in a keywork model, each household having a named keyworker. A resettlement service was also started from the scheme, with applicants being supported through the transition of moving from the scheme to their new tenancy. The final change to occur will be a redefining of the scheme's role:- after its refurbishment, the scheme aims to take on more of a direct access role, being a 24 hour staffed project which will take applications and assess support needs with the view to collecting client data and being the 'core' unit which will disperse households to appropriate dispersed accommodation. In addition, the scheme will continue its current good links with Health, Education and Social Care and Health, and benefit from initiatives from the Ashton Renewal Area., and was recently fortunate in a bid to the Children's Fund for playwork provision within the scheme.

Looking at temporary accommodation in the supported housing sector

In order to improve the provision of accommodation for homeless people it is essential that we utilise existing facilities to the full. To do this we would need to look firstly at the accessibility of temporary accommodation. Working with Tameside's supported housing schemes we need to audit availability, waiting times and admission criteria. From this, an assessment can be made on what need might exist for more supported housing, greater scheme flexibility, direct access and/or out of hours provision. The review process that is being undertaken by the Supporting People Team will examine admission criteria and exclusions, as well as the referral process. This work will be of direct relevance and will feed into the recommendations.

Action. Audit admission criteria in temporary accommodation and move-on accommodation resources of each

Moving away from the focus of creating or improving temporary accommodation, we also need to assess if existing units within schemes are being appropriately filled. The homelessness review suggests that units within schemes are often 'blocked' by individuals who no longer require the support provided by the scheme, for instance, those who are excluded from rehousing or those who need semi-independent move-on accommodation. The Supporting People Team will, as part of their review process, be monitoring clients' length of stay in each project, as well as the outcome of their departure. This information will be important when we look to assess the requirement for additional move-on accommodation. A review of the Housing Register is currently underway, but it is imperative its success in this regard is closely monitored by appropriate groups.

Action. Link temporary accommodation audit findings with proposals to RSLs to increase move-on provision

Looking at temporary accommodation with the social housing sector

The Council aims to increase the overall number of units available as temporary accommodation, to replace the units of B&B currently used. This would enable us to stop using B&B accommodation entirely. To this end, the Council recently spoke to several of the key Housing Association partners in the Borough and received positive responses to the question of offering one or two units for use as interim accommodation. The Council intends to pursue this further this year.

Inset:- Good Practice example New Charter recently provided Tameside MBC with 11 units of self-contained interim accommodation to reduce the usage of B&B accommodation. These units are furnished and equipped so that homeless households can move straight in, and staff are on site to offer support and advice. These units were furnished via the Homelessness Directorate's Priority Needs Order monies for 2002-3, money granted by the ODPM towards the increased numbers of homeless clients who will be assisted following the Homelessness Act 2002. This type of scheme is much more cost-effective than placing a household in B&B accommodation and the Council is now looking to develop more units like these.

Audit of low demand stock

Although the North West Regional Housing Statement has forecast that the regions' pensioner population is rising, Tameside's sheltered accommodation currently suffers from issues of low demand. Thus, with future forecasts in mind, we would like to conduct a project which will assess supply and demand for sheltered accommodation within Tameside.

Action. Conduct research into current supply and demand, especially sheltered units

Starting with 2003 HIP statistics, we need to assess the extent to which sheltered accommodation is 'difficult to let' or 'low demand' and where this accommodation is located. Then, working closely with RSL's we aim to assess which groups of tenants in the 'at risk' groups could be assisted using this provision. A good practice example would be asking whether an RSL would consider using two of its 'hard to let' sheltered units as hospital discharge placements. In other cases, such accommodation might be 'redesignated' for starter tenancies for young people.

Action. Explore refurbishment options for low demand sheltered stock and possible changes

Action. Provide more starter/supported tenancies

If a mismatch of housing and demand is found, using this information at a more strategic level will contribute to the Borough's future planning of housing, working with RSLs and Supporting People.

Action. Liaise with Supporting People Team to ensure that demand meets supply findings

Looking at accommodation within the Private sector

Tameside has a large private rented sector and this is another resource, which can be used to accommodate households in need, if appropriate. The Council is aware of the need to improve accommodation and access within this sector, by improving existing policies and investigating new licensing and accreditation powers.

A key task for the Housing Standards section of Tameside MBC is to ensure that private rented accommodation in Tameside is above the minimum standards for such accommodation. As well as inspecting private rented properties and HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation) regularly, the Housing Standards team work strategically to educate landlords about tenancy management, selecting tenants etc. Tameside's Housing Standards Department is currently working with the RLA (Registered Landlords Association) to subsidise training days for Landlords with properties in Tameside.

Action. Continue to ensure all private rented accommodation has been inspected and is of a decent standard

Action. Educate landlords about tenancy managements and housing benefits

Homes 4 Rent

Tameside's Homes4Rent website was initially designed to improve access to rented accommodation. Private landlords can currently request to advertise their property on this site, after it has been inspected by Housing Standards. This means that a list of inspected and up to standard private rented properties is always available, and at the inspection, the landlord is advised about the Council's Rent Deposit Scheme, offering tenancies to benefit claimants, etc. It is part of the intention that homes 4 rent becomes a greater tool for marketing both private and social housing vacancies.

Inset:- Tameside Rent Deposit Scheme This scheme assists those applicants who want to access private rented accommodation but do not have the funds for a deposit. The scheme inspects the premises proposed, assists with initial moving in requirements such as an inventory, Housing Benefit claim forms and a tenancy agreement, and offers advice to both the tenant and landlord while they are in situ. Since its start in 1997, the Rent Deposit service has assisted over 160 people to move into private rented accommodation. We are grateful to Probation who granted over £6,000 to the scheme in 1998.

Action. Develop the Homes4rent web page and Rent Deposit Scheme as a means of increasing access and improving accommodation in the private rented sector (PRS)

Rent deposit schemes who develop good relationships with local authorities and private landlords have a good record in improving both the supply and standards of private rented property. Tameside's Rent Deposit Scheme, which has recently been transferred over, to New Charter will therefore have a key role in expanding the range of accommodation available to homeless people.

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Chapter Six - Prevention

Under the Homelessness Act 2002 one of the key aims of a Homelessness Strategy is to have policies in place that aim to prevent the occurrence and recurrence of homelessness. In looking at the prevention of homelessness this strategy will have to refer closely to related priorities from other strategic initiatives and in particular Tameside's Prevention Strategy. A draft copy of this has recently been made available entitled, "A Chance to Grow- Tameside's Strategy for Supporting Children and Young People 2003 -2008". This strategy, when ratified, will start a process of getting all services to work together in a joined up way to support children more effectively at the right time and at the right place. A Children and Young People's Partnership has been established to develop the strategy and some of the partnership's aims outlined in the draft strategy will have a lot of relevance to homelessness prevention. These include the development of early intervention support services, integrating services and commissioning, improving localized information, access points and services and the development of a system for identifying, referring and tracking people (IRT) to allow the early identification of children and young people who may be vulnerable.

One merit of the statistics already kept by Housing Authorities for the government's P1E returns is that they document the causes of homelessness and have done so for many years. It is therefore simple to see which causes of homelessness have increased most in recent years and this means we can target specific work at these causes. The Homelessness Review identified the following issues that need to be addressed in order to prevent and reduce the incidences of homelessness:

People suffering from domestic violence

One of the main causes of homelessness in Tameside is domestic violence. Of the 616 households that were accepted as homeless in 2002-2003, 193 were accepted due to suffering a violent relationship breakdown.

During the past 12 months, we have tried to address this issue by piloting an outreach surgery in the Women's Refuge to provide further information to women staying there and to strengthen the links between the two organisations. This was welcomed by the Refuge and a successful service. At present this service is not in operation due to staffing changes, however we will look to start this formally in the coming year to build upon its previous success.

This year, the Refuge expanded their service to be able to accommodate high need clients with drug and alcohol misuse issues. Numbers of women who applied to the Refuge who could not be admitted due to having a substance misuse issue had increased and it was felt that the scheme should expand to take these women. In order to facilitate this, the refuge applied for increased transitional Housing Benefit to expand the staff team so that they now have sufficient staff cover to deal with these clients. In addition, the Crime and Disorder Partnership provided money for training for staff around these issues There are now 3 additional places for women fleeing domestic violence who also need support with substance misuse.

Within the community, transitional Housing Benefit has also been instrumental to the expansion of support for substance misusing clients, which has been provided to families through Substance Using Families Support Service (SUFSS). As it was identified that families suffering domestic violence seemed especially vulnerable to substance misuse, this service was expanded through the Supporting People scheme. With the ability of the refuge to take more high need clients and the increased support through this service, families with complex needs have received an improved level of provision which we hope to build upon.
On a wider level research has indicated that domestic violence can be an enduring cause of homelessness that can pass between generations if there are children involved. Social Care and Health' Commissioning Strategy for Tameside Children and Families Services 2003-4 highlighted the increasing number of assessments where domestic violence has been identified as a factor linked to children's need for emotional support, family support and safety. There are frequently a number of complex interlinking issues accompanying domestic violence and research is being carried out to see how a multi-agency approach could best prevent children and families being missed out in a wide range of issues including homelessness.

The Area Child Protection Committee, a multi agency group with the aim of protecting children from abuse and neglect in a strategic capacity, has commissioned a small working group to draw up good practice guidelines on domestic violence because of its connection with Child protection issues.

Action. Through ACPC DV Working Group, to develop good practice guidelines for multi-agency working for people suffering domestic violence

Families No Longer Willing to Accommodate

In an exercise carried out in December 2001 by a range of agencies to complement the Rough Sleepers Count, being excluded from the family home was by far the most common reason given by all people who described themselves as homeless. The Homelessness Directorate has advocated the use of mediation services in this instance as a way of achieving a satisfactory outcome without a client becoming homeless. We need to emphasise that for many people especially if they are young the best place for them to live may well be in a family home.

A visiting mediation service will be an important part of assessing the suitability of this option and making appropriate recommendations. In some cases a return to the family home will not be possible or desirable but other positive outcomes can be built into the work of a mediation service such as helping people to repair their relationships and thereby maintain their support networks. There are a range of agencies in Tameside who may be able to carry out different aspects of this function so we will need to ensure that where necessary there is joint working and communication to ensure effectiveness.

Action. To promote the role of family mediation as a way of resolving homelessness

Education

One of the key themes of Tameside MBC's Prevention Strategy and the Children's Commissioning Strategy is the importance of early intervention services to families deemed to be at risk of exclusion. Discussions are already taking place across agencies regarding how services should be delivered and by whom, to provide for the unmet need that has been identified through the review of Social Care and Health core assessments. We aim to maintain and improve our links with our strategic partners in Education, Social Care and Health, the Sure Start programmes and the voluntary sector to ensure that through education programmes and improved information both young people and their families are aware of the impact of being homeless. We will also be improving our awareness of the homelessness prevention work that is already taking place across different agencies in the fields of education, child protection, leaving care and drug and alcohol support work. In doing so we will be able to identity the specific input that is needed from the housing and homelessness fields in order to promote prevention.

Action. Young Person' Development Co-ordinator to develop links with schools, Social Care and Health Leaving Care Team and Drug and Alcohol support agencies.

Private Rented Sector

Significant numbers of homeless people apply after they have been evicted by their private landlord. This issue needs to be tackled on a number of different fronts to ensure that a sustainable solution is found. Anecdotal evidence suggests that over the past five years the private rented sector is housing a higher proportion of families and individuals with complex support needs. Their vulnerability is increased by the fact that they will have much less security of tenure than if they were in social housing. A key priority therefore is going to be the improvement of information that is made available to both private tenants and their landlords with regards to housing law. The transfer of the Rent Deposit Scheme from the council to New Charter should give this scheme more scope for developing a role of promoting good practice amongst landlords and a supportive role amongst tenants who might have otherwise been left isolated from any support network.

Action. Publicise housing rights and HOC to private landlords and tenants

In addition, there are key areas of prevention that are not connected to actual causes of homelessness, but are general areas for monitoring and improvement.

Housing Advice

The provision of good quality and accessible housing advice is an essential component of any homelessness strategy. New Charter will continue to provide a housing advice service on behalf of Tameside MBC and they are committed to making continual improvements to the service they are offering to their clients. Under the 2002 Homelessness Act the advice duty has been considerably enhanced to include an assessment of all applicants' housing needs before advice and assistance regarding the availability of accommodation is provided.

In terms of trying to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place the legislation stipulates that those who are threatened with homelessness need an improved level of advice. This strategy must therefore promote an improved personalised advice service that takes into account individual circumstances, provides appropriate advice and information and keeps improved records of the clients' needs and the decisions made. Steps must also be taken to ensure that all agencies working with potentially homeless people should have access to information on how homelessness could be avoided and the sources of help that are available if specialized support is needed. In addition, it is intended that any agencies who as part of their normal duties may 'instigate' homelessness, such as mortgage lenders or Housing Associations, will be targeted for information on homelessness and the availability of housing advice for their customers, to encourage earlier approaches to housing advice providers.

Inset:- Tameside Community Legal Services Partnership The Partnership carried out an audit of housing advice in Tameside in 2000/1 and found that while there were specialist providers of legal advice on housing such as Beevors solicitors and Shelter, the number of callers to the Housing Aid Centre demonstrated that the service was extremely well known and well signposted. To enhance the service at the Centre, and to provide services where applicants most commonly called for them, surgeries were therefore set up at the Centre to provide specialist legal and debt advice, as well as an immigration advice service. As such, the service pursued accreditation by the Legal Services Commission and the provisional award was made in November 2001. The Centre is shortly looking to assess its casework procedures against the same Quality Mark accreditation standards. The Quality Mark, and inclusion in the CLSP Service Provider Directory, gives customers assurances that the standards of the service and provider meet the LSC's requirements for the level achieved, and further indicates that the service is an integral component of the broader local legal service provision.

The Housing Options Centre will continue to strengthen links and work within the Community Legal Services Partnership to improve the partnerships that have been developed. The change of title to Tameside Housing Options Centre aims to give the service a higher profile and make it a resource more accessible to everyone in the area.

Action. Enhance housing advice to single homeless, sample non-priority decisions and benchmark these against other authorities.

Inset:- Tameside MBC's Cold Weather Policy From December through to March each year, Tameside's Cold Weather Policy comes into effect. This policy recognizes that if healthy people have no option but to sleep rough over the winter period, their health will deteriorate and they would soon become vulnerable unnecessarily. The Policy offers anyone who might potentially sleep rough in Tameside two weeks accommodation and an intensive advice and assistance service to enable them to secure their own accommodation within this period. This policy assists a significant number of single people every year (31 people in 2001-2)

Tenancy Support

The cumulative costs of tenancy failure across different agencies has not been calculated locally but evidence from outside the borough points to a lot of resources being wasted. Preventing tenancy breakdown has a cost benefit not only to the client and the agencies supporting the client, but to those agencies instigating the homelessness through legal action. Effective support of tenants who are perceived to be at risk of losing their tenancies could therefore bring many benefits both to the client and to a range of agencies they are likely to come into contact with if they did become homeless. A priority would be to look at estate management policies and practices to see how evictions could be prevented and the tenants supported to maintain their tenancy more effectively. Anecdotal evidence from homeless people who had lost their tenancies due to rent arrears suggests that a more person centred approach that looked at issues such as debt management and mental health may have helped them resolve their problems more effectively. Creating a multi-agency approach to this issue would greatly enhance the chances of success; similarly, a process whereby problems could be signalled quickly allowing for more effective early intervention would also be beneficial. Reference here will need to be made with the Local Prevention Strategy which will connect all multi agency strategies in order to provide a basis for any joint commissioning work done for services targeting young people and families at risk of exclusion.

Action. Publicise HOC/housing advice to Estate Managements Officers (EMOs), arrange joint training to raise awareness, promote good practice reports CAB, Shelter on rent arrears

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Chapter Seven - Sustaining Tenancies and Resettlement Support

As well as working strategically to ensure accommodation is available to homeless households and that homelessness is prevented as far as possible, one of the key aims for this Strategy is to break the cycle of homelessness. Over half the households that were interviewed for the consultation with service users had been homeless more than once.

As Tameside Council does not have any housing stock, following the transfer of its flats and houses to Ashton Pioneer Homes and New Charter Housing Trust, Registered Social Landlords are the source of property for re-housing people from the Housing Register. New Charter currently manages the Housing Register and nominations on behalf of Tameside Council. The Homelessness Act 2002 removed the requirement for a Local Authority to have a Register, and so Tameside MBC and partner RSLs have been working together to appraise options for a new process. It was agreed that Tameside MBC would no longer have a register (those people currently on the register would stay on New Charter's waiting list) but instead focus on re-housing those in greatest need, i.e. statutory homeless or high priority cases. The prioritisation of this group will, where possible offer them settled housing solutions without having to place them in temporary accommodation. We expect single 'non-priority' homeless people to benefit most from this new system, as they are given greater priority under the Homelessness Act than previously.

The Proposed New Housing Register - Proposed process

 

The process is explained in the flowchart above. This new process, along with improvements to the Homes4rent website, will maximise access and choice for homeless households and address the issues faced by the families who have been waiting for lengthy periods in temporary accommodation.

Inset:- Homes 4 rent Homes 4 rent is the RSL Forum's website which will be developed and used for the proposed Housing Register. It currently allows applicants to register interest in vacant properties put on by the RSLs, and to register at the same time with landlords of their choice. The site was developed with assistance from Public Service Agreement funding from the government. As all the RSLs have access to this site, it was decided that the new Housing Register should run from it, with the applicant's record being completed by a Lettings Officer for the RSLs to consider. The Lettings Officer will pay special attention to support needs, matching them with a support package, and will actively 'manage' this register of people in high housing need. Through the Council's GIS resources, a future aim is to use this information to monitor the following:- Mapping which areas households make homeless applications from Mapping which areas are householders' first areas of choice And whether they are rehoused in this area This is to measure how much applicant's networks such as relatives, schools, GPs and work are disrupted, to be able to better address any disruption.

All RSLs have their own Local Lettings Policies, and this will affect who they will offer accommodation to. While it is recognised that RSLs have a responsibility to create sustainable communities, balancing housing needs of applicants with the needs of the community, there needs to be flexibility built into this to provide for the individual circumstances of homeless households. The 'Lettings Officers' will be responsible for identifying and taking account of the support needs of homeless households and putting support packages in place in order for the tenancy to be sustained.

When homeless individuals and families are re-housed it is essential that they have access to tenancy sustainment initiatives. The type of support available should range from help with completing Housing benefit forms to 'Life Skills training', depending on needs. Estate managers will also be key in identifying support needs and matching providers to those needs.

Action. Provide information and training to EMOs on tenancy sustainment schemes

The 'Lettings Officers' will monitor the distribution of the high need households between RSLs, monitor the length of void times for permanent and temporary accommodation, the length of time it takes to re-house applicants, how effective the support packages are, identify gaps in provision of support and explore sources of funding to fill these gaps.

Tenancy support

More client-centred support is required such as mediation services, support to those with complex and multiple needs and support to ex-offenders. The Supporting People team have recently started carrying out reviews of all agencies that offer housing related support. These reviews are based on the ODPM Quality and Monitoring Framework, and their purpose is to assess the strategic relevance, demand, quality, efficiency and effective as well as cost effectiveness of the services. The Housing Strategy Team can use the information already collected for the Supporting People reviews to carry out an audit of what agencies provide support, and which clients they work with. The Homelessness Strategy Review clearly identified a lack of supported accommodation, and the audit should support this, providing more evidence of the need for new schemes to be developed.

Action. Audit current agencies providing support to agencies, linked to SP work

One problem that is currently being faced by supported accommodation schemes is the lack of move-on accommodation. Usually tenancies at these schemes are for 6 months but can be for longer if required, in which time individuals can receive the support they need to learn how to sustain their own tenancy. Often though, an offer of accommodation has not been received for the person to move on from the scheme, meaning they have to either stay for longer (which can be frustrating and counterproductive) or move out to alternative temporary accommodation. RSLs do have property that is 'low demand'; so one target for the strategy is to negotiate with RSLs about using some of these units as move-on accommodation, possibly by using starter/supported tenancies. In the event that clients are excluded from permanent housing, the RSL Forum discussed the possibility of jointly supporting an anti-exclusion scheme which could support those households who need to demonstrate commitment to changing anti social behaviour or clearing former debts before permanent rehousing is offered. The RSL Forum are continuing to research how best this could be provided.

Action. Investigate possibility of advocacy and anti-exclusion support scheme

Sustaining Tenancies

Another objective of this strategy is to investigate the cost of eviction (from lost rent to court costs) to see how these costs compare to the time and support costs required to maintain a tenancy. Although these processes are funded differently, it would beneficial to demonstrate the comparative costs to organisations.

Action. Research costs of support schemes vs eviction process

It is important for landlords and RSLs to appreciate that by evicting a tenant they are not solving their problem, but moving it elsewhere. Rather than developing methods to exclude households, the focus should be on how to help these households integrate successfully and sustain their tenancy.

Action. Awareness raising of early intervention benefits and develop links between agencies

Meaningful Occupation

In 1997 the Ashton Renewal Partnership was formed to bring together public and private funding to address the problems being faced in the deprived area to the West of Ashton town centre. There has recently been a mid-term review, which revealed excellent progress, but also identified a lot of work that was still required. Within the area there is a high proportion of supported housing (the homeless families unit, Gibson Terrace, is in the area), B & B's and private rented accommodation (8.5% compared to the Tameside average of 4.3%). Only one in ten properties are owner occupied, and the population in the area is relatively transient. This impacts on employment rates, and unemployment is twice the Tameside average here.

The consultation with people who had experienced homelessness identified the need for occupation- something to do during the day, whether it was employment, training or a community centre to meet up with other people in similar circumstances. The Ashton Renewal area provides an ideal place to pilot a scheme due to the number of supported accommodation schemes, and the Ashton Renewal project has access to funding to set up projects to encourage people back into employment. Therefore, one objective of the strategy will be to devise and pilot a project regarding greater support for occupation and employment to homeless households in that area, as well as investigating similar projects in other authority areas.

Action. Pilot project with Ashton Renewal for greater support for occupation and employment of homeless households in that area

Health and Homelessness Links

National research has shown that there is a strong link between homelessness and health. The Health Action at Crisis briefing showed that 30-50% of homeless people experience mental health problems and 70% of homeless people misuse drugs. On a local level through our consultation exercise undertaken through the Homelessness Forum, we identified that 11.8% of people felt they needed support with mental health issues and 14.2% needed assistance with drug misuse. The information we received from the local probation office also showed similar trends, 57 people out of 124 identifying that they had problems with drug misuse, as well as 16 people identifying mental health problems. We aim to address some of these issues through the work of the Substance Misuse Housing Link Worker. This worker has been funded through the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and fits within this agenda for reducing drug related crime.

The national research also identified the effect that overcrowded, damp and unsanitary living conditions have on physical and mental health. We aim to improve these conditions through partnership work with the Housing Standards, who are involved in carrying out inspections of all known private rented sector accommodation and educating landlords on standards and tenancy management.

Previously we identified a problem with families accessing mainstream health care from our temporary accommodation at Gibson Terrace. A Health Visitor now attends the hostel at least once a week and is given a list of new families entering the accommodation, in order that she can link them to a GP in the area. She also offers general advice to hostel staff on health care issues to assist them with caring for people in the hostel. She will continue to link people to mainstream health care, to ensure ongoing access.

We recognise on a wider scale on the importance of schemes like Sure Start and the necessity to have a mutual understanding of Community Care Plans. We aim to develop better links and understanding of health related issues in future years.