Your Own Place

Norwich

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Why Move-On Support

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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.

Tackling affordability to prevent homelessness

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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. 

Pre-tenancy and back to our roots

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At Your Own Place we work with people of all ages and many backgrounds. What they have in common is a risk of homelessness. This can be as simple as having been homeless before, or something much more nuanced that doesn’t have a label and isn’t perceived or counted.

If you’re familiar with Your Own Place you might think we work with young people. You can be forgiven because this is where we started out and with good reason. Youth (under 35) and eviction from the private rented sector are still the biggest determinants of homelessness. So are leaving care, being in custody, having a mental health need and if you see today’s data on private sector rents making up an average of 28% of people’s incomes, you’ll understand why it tends to be young people and those on a low income (as those groups are more likely to be in private rented homes).

At Your Own Place, we talk a lot about the dual safety nets. Those safety nets that many of us never even think about. Either you’re lucky enough to always have a bit of spare cash in the bank to bail yourself out of sticky situations and/or you have a family member who can always help, including when you get divorced and need somewhere to stay. Having someone at the end of the phone with support, a hug, their own experiences of going through life’s hardships and coming out the other side or just lending you a tenner for electricity is not to be underestimated in the extent to which this can prop people up when things get tough.

For people who are in supported accommodation, leaving care, leaving custody or even leaving the army, these are rocky times to navigate and now hugely expensive. Without the knowledge, confidence, skill and resilience to navigate your money and housing options, thing can go wrong quickly and badly.

So we’re chuffed to bits that our award-winning Pre-tenancy workshops continue to reach people without a safety net, without the support many of us take for granted and provides invaluable knowledge and confidence to people as they get their home – to keep their home.

Our Advisory Board and the Ladder of Participation

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Your Own Place Advisory Board (YOPAB) is a group of people who have experienced Your Own Place’s services – workshops, mentoring or employability support – and who provide lived experience perspectives to inform our work. The aim of YOPAB is to be mutually beneficial.

YOPAB is all about co-production, shared influence, building experience and developing skills. So there is no one better to tell you about the work they’ve done with us this year than one of our YOPAB members: Gary.

Gary starts: ‘This blog will be about what YOPAB does. We as the Advisory Board take on the staff suggestion and mould them into great workshops for our customers and trainees.The reason we mould our workshops are because we all have different experiences — the staff is trained to adapt, so that’s good for them and for the trainees. ‘

Here’s another member of YOPAB (Lauren), commenting on how Your Own Place’s flexibility works for her:

I love how your own place can adapt any activity to the needs of everyone in the room.
I can still participate even when things are harder for me”

YOPAB’s coordinator, Emily, uses the Ladder of Participation model to reflect on how we involve YOPAB in our projects.

With a background in teaching, Emily is passionate about equality and ensuring all are able to access support where and when they need it.

The annual plan for YOPAB focusses on various outcomes to ensure the input of people with lived experience moves up the ladder. We asked Gary and the Advisory Board where they feel they are — acknowledging their place on the ladder may change with each project they work on .

Your Own Podcast came into being from idea put forward by a founding member of YOPAB. At its inception, it involved discussing Your Own Place and what we offered to trainees and partners. Gary updates us to where it’s at now:

‘We spoke about rebooting the podcast in one of our regular Zoom meetings [keeping YOPAB inclusive so that people can join virutally as well as in person]. The people who were interested said they would do it, and now we plan the podcasts in advance. In meetings, we also use the program Canva to help us arrange the format and write ideas down. We are all very creative people in the advisory board which is amazing. We use the podcast to help others with everyday needs

It’s now evolved into a monthly event that is planned and recorded completely by YOPAB, edited by Emily, and now features interviews with services and professionals. Listen up for members of YOPAB discussing everyday challenges that we all come up against in all podcast episodes here.

This is one of YOPAB’s Citizen Control projects: created, designed and implemented by members of YOPAB, with support of Your Own Place.

YOPAB also collaborated, created and collated lived experience mental health research to create a report to show how employers can support employees to be happy and thrive in their roles.

Your Own Place and the Advisory Board:
🟢 Co-produced a report, highlighting YOPAB’s recommendations
🟠 Create videos to share these recommendations, as well as amplify their voices and experiences

This is one of YOPAB’s Delegated Power projects: with a goal created by Your Own Place, and with the resources and responsibility given to YOPAB.

Gary says:

‘We as the Advisory Board are at the Placation stage with projects that are already up and running. Any ideas we have help out the YOP staff. We helped with the Colchester Borough Home project. We had a morning on what we thought would be good for them — it is amazing to fell included and to have us to bounce ideas off.

We came to the conclusion that we the Advisory Board have a different point of view then the people in the Colchester professionals!’

Here’s a video to share how the feedback that YOPAB provided shaped the work Your Own Place did with Colchester Borough Homes, the report we wrote and the project proposal we submitted.


And Gary’s final word on being part of YOPAB?

We on the Advisory Board are different, but we all value our different needs and respect each other 🙂 

Welcome to our newest team member

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Leah joins our team as Online and Co-Facilitator after playing a key part in our Advisory Board

I’m Leah and I am joining Your Own Place as an online and co facilitator. I love dogs, dopamine dressing and being outside.

Having been supported by Your Own Place in the past and felt the impact, I wanted to join the team so I could be with others as they too realise their own potential. I have always been passionate about people, and believe that everyone deserves the best chance at success in the areas of their lives that they are working on or towards.

I know Your Own Place also holds this belief. It feels great to be somewhere that aligns with my values, and to be able to work with that focus. I’m looking forward to facilitating online workshops with people pre-tenancy, being able to get to know individuals and hear their goals and choices, and be alongside them as they begin or continue taking the steps to get there… whilst having fun too!

From being part of Your Own Places Advisory Board, learning from others, realising my own skills, getting my own home and still, really not knowing it all, I’m excited to now get stuck into being a part of Your Own Place’s big mission of preventing homelessness.