Places of Change
North East Housing Conference
25th November 2009
Ben Dickenson, Homeless Link Regional Manager
Mark Sidney, Tyneside Cyrenians Director of Operations
WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
Principles, our region, example
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STREET
HOME
Day
Services
Emergency
access
Second
stages
Floating support
& resettlement
Crisis intervention
/ Emergency
Engagement
/ Development
/
Accommodation
Changing lives
Basics:
Confidence &
Short courses - personal
Mainstreaming –
Food,
Health,
Clothing
Motivation via
arts,sports,
leisure
development, skills
building, cutting down,
relationships, social
networks
volunteering, college,
university, vocational,
job training, back to
work
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•
quality physical environment
•
•
involve residents in development
well-trained, motivated staff
•
low exclusions and abandonments
“75% reduction in exclusions and
abandonment's.” The Dawn Centre, Leicester
•
increased positive move-ons
“Before redevelopment 40%, now 75%”:
Simon House, Oxford
North East aveagre: 60%
•
education & employment
2007 - 295 people enrolled & 250 completed
qualifications: Crisis Learning Zone, London
North East: 55% accredited training, 27%
into work services
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2,015
(4%)
520 direct access
beds (6%) – 13 sites
5,639
50,000 bed spaces in UK
(11%)
3,680
(7%)
disproportionately small % in NE
3,006 (6%)
concentration on Tyneside
Gateshead no DA
generally less in Tees Valley
4,753
(9%)
gaps in Redcar & Cleveland, Hartlepool,
Northumberland
5,086 (10%)
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5,935
(12%)
14,386 (26%)
6,236 (12%)
Direct
Day
access
centre
6
3
2
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
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1
Stopgap £450k
Elliot House £500k
Virginia House £1.3m
Skylight £1.2m
Better By Half £560k
Matt Talbot House £165k
Gateshead Sports Academy £800k
Sunderland YMCA £80k
Wellington Street £2m
Darlington YMCA £120
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Results of investment: North East
•
over 100 units improved: en-suite, quality finishes
•
further 50 units offered new services or other indirect improvements
•
no shared rooms in homeless accommodation on Tyneside
•
16 new programme of meaningful activity, leading to employment
•
flagship education day service (Skylight)
•
impetus for employment schemes (Brighter Futures, Better By Half, Skylight Café,
SVP shops)
•
community regeneration and partnership (Darlington YMCA, Wellington
Street/Stages, Gateshead Sports Academy)
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DVD
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Investment 2005-2011:
creating model services
Hostels Capital Improvement Programme (05-08)
1998: Prime Minister sets rough sleeping target
2001: target met early, street-to-hostels BUT
too many people in hostel system too long
poor physical condition de-motivates
too many negative discharges
2005: £90m for hostels, day & night centres
150+ grants (7 in North East)
Places of Change Capital Programme (08-11)
2007:
HCIP overwhelming success
Comprehensive Spending Review
2008:
further £80million investment
100+ projects (6 in North East)
Better By HAlf
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What it means to be a Place of
Change organisation
Mark Sidney
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Activity – small groups
What would make
my project/
organisation/
authority a PoC
exemplar?
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Challenges we face
What we learned
Mark Sidney
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Strategic lesson
Ben Dickenson
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Know the capital opportunities
Homes and Communities Agency
• supported housing – community need
• area team leaders
• investment plans (next April), investment agreements (next Sept)
DCSF: My Place
DCSF: co-location
CRASH
SHIP
Internal
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Align sectors
Employability compact
Residents of short term supported housing: 44% were unemployed job seekers, 24%
were not looking for work, and 22% were sick or disabled,
• make employment, training, education and volunteering opportunities available to all
• develop progression pathway to help all residents move towards employment
• ensure all housing providers understand employment and training sector
• monitor outcomes for engagement, training, education and employment
Capital and Revenue Alignment Register
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Winning political support
A long term process of engagement…
• portfolio holder involved in out-reach and rough sleeping counts
• regular briefings
• homelessness leads at Housing and Economic Partnerships
• Positive Achievement Awards ceremony
• Flagship investment and award winning projects
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Equipping providers
It’s about reinforcing what works, changing what doesn’t…
• local training: e.g. drugs management, motivational interviewing
• protocols: hospital discharge, reducing evictions
• chronic exclusion cross-agency case management
•Leading Places of Change
• Engage to Change
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Building to a regional approach
•
2000 bed spaces, 520 direct access – just 150 impacted by HCIP/PCP
•
55% of provision in North East not refurbished for over 6yrs (SNaP)
•
30 sites of accommodation do not match Places of Change (estimate)
•
PCP unable to support women’s refuges and many young people’s schemes
So, building on similar idea of CRAR…
•
NEHB endorsed survey of provision, against Places of Change standards, 2008
•
Mapping development needs of services for homeless people in the North East
region to create place-focussed priorities for homeless accommodation
•
Inform decision-making and strategies, and help shape “single conversation”
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Activity – small groups
What
Swap
obstacles
your
flipcharts
might we
please…
face/
are facing/
What solutions can
have faced in
you offer to the
creating PoC
problems in front of
services?
you?
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Thank you
Ben Dickenson
07798631357
[email protected]
Mark Sidney
0191 2562903
[email protected]
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