Challenges - Deprivation

1. Hammersmith & Fulham’sEnhanced housing options programme Gareth Mead Assistant Director (Housing Options)

2. Challenges - Deprivation • Population: 176,000 • Tenure • 44% owner occupation • 33% social housing • 22% PRS (Avg rent £380pw) • 1% LCHO • Housing Need • 11,000 on social housing register • 2,500 on LCHO register • 1000 in TA (80% unemployed) • Employment and economic activity • Less than 45% of social housing tenants • employed • 13.6% of working-age people on key out • -of-work benefits

3. A tale of two cities

4. Challenges – welfare benefits dependency & low educational attainment

5. Barriers • High numbers of parental exclusions from social tenancies, often NEET • Overcrowding, perceived acceptability of intergenerational homelessness and worklessness as the norm • Scarcity of social housing stock and lack of affordable housing • Including access to PRS, especially for under 25s • Strategic mismatches • E.g. Community Lettings quota removes incentive for work and reduces appeal of Income Project and other schemes • History of working in silos amongst council departments, JCP, ALMO, local agencies, childcare etc • Competing programs, poor communication and piecemeal solutions • Better off in work/transition to work issues • Without holistic partnerships that remove the barriers to work (i.e. childcare funding, JCP and Housing Benefit changes, affordable rents etc) well intentioned schemes have come unstuck

6. Key challenge- • The changes we need to make depend on achieving a fundamental shift in culture by both staff and residents • “Hand up, not hand out” • Economic options can no longer be distinguished from housing options • Focus on promoting independence and ambition among residents- but this relies on real opportunities to be available

7. Aims and objectives • Contribute to LAA targets around employment, reducing JSA, reducing re-offending, getting socially excluded adults back into work and into stable housing • Support mixed, sustainable communities • Provide holistic housing advice, tailored to an individual’s needs • Focus on prevention – engage with a wider range of people before housing becomes a crisis • Promote and provide a wider range of housing options- bring together PRS access schemes, help residents plan for their long-term housing aspirations, including LCHO • Use stock effectively- tackle overcrowding and under-occupation; accessible housing options • Tackle worklessness - increase training, skills and opportunities for people in housing need and link employment and training options to housing options advice • Share learnings and good practice

8. Our response: Enhanced Housing Options Principles Customer-focused Ambitious Proactive Preventative Inclusive Effective Measurable

10. Employment and housing Principles Stop thinking of work and housing separately (Hills) Housing need has roots in lack of livelihood Embed employment and training services alongside housing options to raise and capture aspirations Co-locationof welfare rights services and JCP with housing options

11. Learning so far • Evidence based research and decision making! • Scaling up to have maximum impact-beyond pilots/baubles/good practice models. • The importance of partnership working-easier said than done, aligning cultures, targets and resources • Recession highlights the importance of training and capacity building for residents • Employment can be key to expanding housing choice- but is only part of the holistic housing options picture • Staff transformation from “Housing assessor” to “Housing Mentor” is med-long term and not without challenges. • Openness & willingness to share ideas and approaches is crucial

12. Making a difference Real people in jobs; “A role model for all the other staff”

13. Thank you Gareth Mead Assistant Director (Housing Options) London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham gareth.mead@lbhf.gov.uk 0208 753 5344