Tackling and preventing repeat homelessness – lessons from research in Bradford

1. Tackling and preventing repeat homelessness – lessons from research in Bradford Sheila Spencer, HQN Sarah Possingham and Julie Parker, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

2. The Bradford research • Why it was commissioned • What it looked at • Definitions • Background • Methodology

3. Why it was commissioned Purpose of the research • To understand the scale and causes of repeat homelessness in Bradford • To propose strategies for addressing the problem Why it was commissioned • For some time Bradford Council had recognised that repeat representations to homelessness services & some groups’ exclusion from access to services was an issue • Successful application to fund Enhanced Housing Options Trailblazers programme from CLG & WNF presented an opportunity to commission research

4. The brief – the key questions to answer • What has already been learnt about repeat homelessness and how is it addressed elsewhere? • What is the scale of repeat homelessness in Bradford? • What are the main causes of repeat homelessness, and which groups of people are affected most and why? • Which resources and services currently respond to and prevent repeat homelessness? • How can services be improved or re-designed to reduce the chances of people becoming homeless more than once? • How can agencies work together more effectively to reduce and prevent repeat homelessness? • How can repeat homelessness be best recorded and tracked in future, so that we can see if our policies have worked?

5. What did we mean by repeat homelessness? • Statutory homelessness re-presentations: • New definition, i.e. repeat presentation within 2 years of a previous duty being ended • Adverse decisions and abandoned applications, not just acceptances • People with repeated short term solutions • People not necessarily counted as homeless on both occasions - could be helped through advice or prevention work • People seeking help more than once from any service, not just statutory homelessness/housing options

6. Methodology • Literature and good practice review • Review of Bradford documents • Collect and analyse data • Snapshot survey • Review Housing Advice Service’s case notes and processes • Consult with service users (involved 5 peer researchers) • Consult stakeholders

7. Key findings

8. Research and good practice review • Little research into repeat homelessness, other than in Scotland • Scottish research pointed to problem most likely affecting single people • Solutions suggested (from Glasgow): • Homeless services keeping in touch with people even if they move around • Providing smaller scale supported accommodation • Support services offering help beyond sustaining a tenancy (holistic support) • Getting agencies together to look at how to help people with multiple and complex problems

9. Research and good practice review …(cont’d) • Little evidence so far of deliberate actions to reduce repeat homelessness or to track the problem • Good practice elsewhere in reducing repeat homelessness: • Specialist housing support, psychological services, befriending, and single access points into supported housing • Case management, reducing loss of supported housing • Existing good practice in Bradford: • About Turn • Tcoy • Tenancy-ready framework • Joint approaches on support schemes with mental health, substance misuse • Service user involvement • Bradford Cyrenians rough sleeping scheme

10. Case stories • Young woman thrown out by parents at age of 11, still homeless at 18 – will not accept hostel as a step towards resolving problem • Couple with children, homeless 4 times, violence involved on each occasion • Single parent homeless from parents’ as a teenager, later threatened with invalid notice from private rented flat • Single man, drug user, homeless many times, sometimes from settled housing, many times from supported housing, sometimes through choice • Woman fleeing violence from partner’s family, advised to go back, tried to patch it up but failed • Young man with multiple problems, linked to mental health of parents, unable to comply with rules within hostels

11. Who is most affected? • Single people with drug or alcohol problems/offenders • Young people who have been abused or who have been in care (including some under 16s) • Families with multiple problems • People with long-term mental health problems • Women who have been subject to domestic abuse/violence, and women escaping forced marriages • People involved in the sex industry

12. How many are affected? • Tiny number of cases using CLG definition (11) • Much larger number of people who receive more than one decision, or reappear following a prevention/options interview: • 362 homeless decisions for 169 households • 339 households made contact 706 times for prevention • 400 people(probably some overlap) appear more than once at day centres, supported housing, drug/alcohol/criminal justice, leaving care, or health services,at least300inlast two years • A significant number appeared to have lost homes on multiple occasions (up to 20 times)

13. Snapshot survey results

14. Most significant causes/barriers to resolving housing problems - service users’ experience: • Behaviour related to drug and alcohol problems • Not wanting to have to live in shared supported housing • Exclusion from social housing for rent arrears or a criminal record • Not being thought able to manage a tenancy • Being too young to hold a tenancy/enter supported housing • Losing private tenancies • Not having enough to do

15. Most significant causes/barriers to resolving housing problems – other research findings • Housing advice / prevention / options services may find long-lasting solutions / prevention for priority needs groups but may not be so effective for non-priorities • It can be easy to lose contact with people whose homelessness can’t be resolved immediately – increases chance of repeat homelessness • Many rough sleepers have been repeatedly homeless • Services are mostly not geared up to tracking people reappearing as homeless, and investigating what can be done to break the cycle • Preventing homelessness will prevent repeat homelessness

16. Which agencies can help? • Housing options/prevention – identify repeat presenters, patterns, causes, triggers, pathways, solutions • Supported housing – identify repeat visitors, and prevent exclusion, eviction, abandonment • Day/outreach services – being persistent about helping people to get into appropriate housing and support • Probation/YOT/DIP, social care, health – making appropriate referrals, sharing information, planning joint interventions, implementing protocols • Social housing providers – identify tenants at risk of losing their homes early enough to engage preventative help/support

17. Breaking the cycle – for people have already been homeless more than once • Identify all those who have lost a temporary or settled home more than once • Explore patterns and what caused them • Ensure smooth access to appropriate supported/settled accommodation – minimise exclusion, eviction, abandonment • Involve other agencies working with repeat presenters, to explore causes and build a plan together • Identify and act on gaps or shortcomings in service provision • Good case management systems, tackling rough sleeping • Listen to service users, and to staff working with repeat presenters

18. Planning to prevent repeat incidents for people who have been homeless just once • Identify triggers for homelessness and build support/personal housing plans to avoid any repetition • Develop enough provision and pathways so that accommodation is provided before a crisis is reached • Provide gate schemes, and out-of-hours services for non-priority groups • Help people who are non priority or intentionally homeless to find long-lasting solutions • Ensure that person is fully prepared for and supported into next step (especially moving to settled housing) • Identify people at risk, before they move on/in • Provide holistic support packages

19. Planning to prevent repeat incidents for people who have been homeless just once …(cont’d) • Make sure referrals can be responded to speedily • Providers geared up to reporting gaps and overloads • Criminal justice, health, social care, drug/alcohol treatment services working with others as soon as housing problems become apparent • Efficient sharing of information • Services which identify and work with anyone coming onto the street, aiming to resolve housing problems • Good resources for supporting and advising private tenants who might be at risk of losing tenancies • Adequate training in preventing homelessness for staff across the board

20. What would make the most difference – Service user view • Being able to get into the right supported housing in the right place • Helping people with debt and other financial problems • Equipping people with the skills to manage their home • Preventing the loss of private tenancies, through negotiating longer tenancies, and providing good advice and advocacy • Providing caring and effective housing advice/options/ prevention services • Helping people to keep occupied (links to engagement, education, training, employment)

21. Other critical interventions • Emergency beds • Good publicity about who does what, and how to refer in (and/or single access points for temporary accommodation) • Supported housing schemes for the most chaotic households – including couples, families, and sex workers • Good risk assessment and risk management policies – not risk averse, or based on long-past behaviours • Provide furniture packs, with cookers and other essential items • Rent deposit/guarantee schemes for non-priority/excluded households • Effective work between mental health, drug/alcohol and housing teams

22. Other learning points from the research • Still very hard to measure the extent of repeat homelessness – different definitions, access points, and identifiers • Need to seize opportunity for change - have we been inured to it in the past? • Peer research needs local support, and the research question needs to be set out clearly • Important to measure crossing of LA boundaries, and back, but is S P data accurate? • Comparing S P CRF and outcomes data would have been very useful – but lack of NI as an identifier hampered this • Tracking people through different types of provision would make big difference – as in rough sleeping case management systems • Taking on the ethos of the Places of Change agenda would help

23. What is being done in Bradford? • Enhanced Housing Options Trailblazer Authority jointly funded by CLG & WNF locally • Partnership with Probation, Incommunities, DWP/Economic Development, Connexions and local authority • Integrating workstreams: homelessness and worklessness • Total Place pilot: three groups, offenders, young people at risk/care leavers and older people • Drug Systems Change pilot • PSA 16 dedicated workstreams for vulnerable groups, mental health, leaning disabilities, young care leavers and offenders

24. What these programmes are focussing on • New integrated housing options service from three hubs: Open Moves delivered by partner agency Incommunities • Housing options outreach service in Probation hub & court setting • Young people: new service (Tcoy) for all under 25s with a housing need, with specialist partner agency (Bradford City Centre Project) and Connexions-now in partnership with CYPS (G v Southwark) • New housing allocations policy-needs based-4 bands • Supported employment services (Business Action On Homelessness-ready for work programme) & literacy and numeracy training, self esteem/confidence building work • Partnerships with Supporting People- New streetwork services & mental Health and housing team • Increase in Family Intervention Project spaces across city

25. What next? • Systems mapping as a result of cold weather provision to identify barriers and ‘buy in’ to services from providers and users • Formal implementation integrated into work programme for Strategic Homelessness Core Group • Composite action planning to manage the ‘whole’ rather than isolated ‘parts’ • Relationship to Homelessness Strategy priorities, through to Joint Housing strategy and LAA targets (PSA 16)