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At Your Own Place we support all those individuals and charities appealing to the government not to criminalise rough sleeping in tents or the giving out of tents by charities and others.

We acknowledge the issue is complex, as we have seen before and will again at Christmas, in discussions about whether to give cash to a homeless person. To ameliorate their immediate suffering or to feel powerless against a system we cannot change?

The choice of word ‘lifestyle’ captures the Instagram age in which we live, making the notion that anyone could choose to live in a tent in the same way they might choose to live in a ten bedroom mansion, deeply offensive.

That rough sleeping and all types of homelessness have risen in the last decade is ignored in this ambition, making no effort to acknowledge the complex underlying causes. To say nothing of the impossibility of policing a law of this kind.

Who among us when offered the choice between a safe and secure home and a tent on the streets, would choose a tent? No-one. Because the choice had been removed for those hardest hit by our current housing crisis.

We wholly reject the demeaning, heartless, polarising rhetoric and over-simplification of a failed housing system.

What is the best way to make a difference right now?  If you’re anything like the members of the team at Your Own Place CIC, it can at times feel all but impossible to support people whose budgets simply don’t add up. Citizens Advice tells us that 47% of people they see are in negative budget (i.e. no matter what they do, it doesn’t add up). 85% of social landlords are seeing an increase in rent arrears.

For those of us working with tenants and in communities this takes its toll and I keep saying to the team that we can’t expect to have all the answers.  Should we be taking a preventative or reactive approach?  Should we be signposting or hand holding?  Should landlords be alleviating the worst of rent increases or supporting tenants into work with additional schemes such as apprenticeships?

At Your Own Place it can look like we simply run more of the same financial inclusion interventions that many landlords also provide under the banner of ‘tenancy sustainment teams’, ‘money advice’ or ‘tenancy support’.   We don’t. We do indeed run workshops and 1-2-1 support sessions covering everything from budgeting, debt and benefits, but we also include housing options, roles and responsibilities as well as managing wellbeing and isolation as vital to the bigger picture.  It’s also bespoke, face to face and fun!

Our offer, ten years in the iteration, is proudly not advice or reactive, whilst responding empathically to people in crisis.  We have learnt, working with tenants with ages ranging from 18-92, that people, especially when brought together, have a wealth of knowledge already that benefits from being heard.  We don’t deny that when in crisis people need a crisis service and a particular expert at getting a problem fixed.  

This is not what we do at Your Own Place.  At Your Own Place we stick with targeted prevention and complement the other services.  This means we work with those facing the most risk of losing their tenancy and facilitate groups for the benefit of all (to learn from each other) and ask lots of open questions.  Using a coaching, asset-based, restorative and fun (yes, fun) range of techniques, we find out what has worked for people before, as a means of THEM finding the right solution for THEM.  None of this stops us covering core debt, budgeting, savings or any other content or signposting to another service when advice is needed.  Rather than delivering life skills, for the purposes of solely tenancy sustainment, our approach sees us deliver skills for life that can be utilised across and throughout life’s challenges.

These approaches and their impact on tenant’s lives and livelihoods are what I’ll be talking about at CIH Southwest on 27th September.

Some time ago we started to remove the word ‘independent’ from our brand Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS). In social care and supported housing in particular, there is an obsession with ‘independence’. Whether this is wishful thinking around people no longer being dependent on their services is unclear. That ‘independence’ is neither desirable nor achievable seems clearer.

People find themselves homeless for as many reasons as there are homeless people – a unique set of circumstances led to that moment. What we do know about rough sleeping (the tip of the homelessness iceberg) is that the chances of being homeless are massively increased for those that have been in the care system, in prison, in the military, suffering with mental health needs and/or previously homeless. Poverty, a lack of employment that pays a decent wage combined with unaffordable housing are driving the current wave where over 300,000 by some estimates, are believed to be homeless.

In temporary, supported and transitional accommodation, and ultimately faced with crisis, people can become dependent on other people and services. When something as fundamental as a roof over your head is provided it is easy to see how this happens. In this context it feels natural for the drive to be towards ‘independence’ as a counter to their previous situation and a marker of ‘success’.

During our restorative, asset-based and coaching Move-On 1-2-1 support sessions, ideally following Pre-tenancy group workshops, people have the opportunity to explore the lived realities of living away from their previous supported setting and to put theory into practise. People who have previously lived in supported accommodation, prison, social care settings etc face huge challenges in moving on, navigating services, fighting stigma and prejudice and overcoming whatever barriers led them there in the first place. 25,000 of those leaving supported accommodation will have been previously homeless.

As a group both shut out of affordable housing and more likely to be homeless in the future, it is vital that this Move-On Support is delivered in a way that develops inter-dependence rather than independence. In so doing we reduce reliance on other services, build self-esteem as a means of accessing help, knowledge about the support available and the confidence to Manage Money, a Tenancy and the Cost of Living crisis – to avoid repeat homelessness.

It’s a week when Prince William shows a commitment to ending homelessness with ‘Homewards’. At Your Own Place we launch ‘Steps to a Successful Tenancy’, in partnership with Sovereign Housing Association.

What the Prince recognised in his figure of 300,000 people, is that this includes people in supported accommodation and other temporary (and often pretty grotty, albeit necessary) settings.  The media reports a lot on rough sleeping. More recently about the Private Renters Bill, with evictions from the private sector among the biggest drivers of homelessness.

The problem

What is much less reported is the people stuck in limbo, stuck in supported accommodation, life and jobs on hold.  When I worked in supported accommodation there was awful talk of ‘bed blocking’.    What this meant was that many of these arrangements are meant to be temporary and that through a lack of move-on options for a lot of people, they were stuck.  This in turn results in many who need the service also being turned away and forced to sleep rough.  When we look at the stubborn numbers of people remaining homeless and recurring homelessness, we can see how an inability to move on from supported accommodation has a knock on throughout the homelessness chain.

I have never met a housing association that wanted to evict someone.  I don’t always agree with their approaches or policies, but you only have to see the dedication to their tenants during Covid and now with hardship funds during the cost of living crisis, to understand that eviction is a last resort. They want to do the right thing.

With 60,000 homes across southern England, Sovereign Housing Association, like many, has witnessed an increase in the numbers of prospective tenants they are turning away or ‘skipping’ applicants on affordability grounds. Housing associations are allowed to undertake these assessments. They ensure that tenants can afford the rent at the outset. With two thirds of housing associations now reporting an increase in rent arrears and being dependent on this income to build more homes, this is something they can ill afford to risk.  With an all but universal 7% increase in social rents last April and 1 in 4 adults having less than £100 in savings, more must be done to support people from the outset.

If more people are being turned away or ‘skipped’, more people are continuing in unsatisfactory homeless accommodation and other temporary settings. These are not conducive to starting out or thriving in life.  It being an affordability assessment, it disproportionately affects young people as those most likely to be on a low income.  

Our solution

So we’re thrilled to have been commissioned as part of their solution. We commend Sovereign on their efforts to challenge his situation.  Our 12-week programme that sees a unique combination of online group workshops covering money skills and tenancies, following by coaching 1-2-1 support as well as access to a fabulous portal of our Your Own Place recordings and resources means that tenants turned away will have a better opportunity of passing the affordability assessment second time around. 

We’re looking forward to developing the programme, reaching new people in new geographies to reduce affordability risks for them as well as the landlord and playing our part in freeing up accommodation for other people in need and preventing homelessness.