40 research outputs found
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Not going it alone: social integration and tenancy sustainability for formerly homeless substance users
This article draws on findings from a study of a specialised tenancy support service for homeless substance users in a Midlands city, and contributes to debates about what makes solutions to homelessness sustainable. Two approaches to tenancy support are examined: first, a resettlement model based on risk management; and second, a restorative model which prioritises support that enables people to rebuild their lives in a more holistic sense. Conclusions point to a need for a broader training for tenancy support workers and a funding level that enables them to stay with their clients long enough to facilitate this fuller restoration
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New keys for old doors: breaking the vicious circle connecting homelessness and re-offending
Policy-makers concerned with preventing re-offending have long been aware of the relationship between crime and homelessness. Single homeless people are more likely to be victims of violent crime, to be drawn into criminal sub-cultures and to receive custodial sentences when they offend. Likewise, offenders are more likely to re-offend in the absence of stable accommodation, while custodial sentences frequently put accommodation at risk, creating a vicious circle. This is especially true of offenders given short-term prison sentences of 3-12 months. This concern has been given a new imperative in the UK by the passing of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, and the extension of statutory rehabilitation to short-term prisoners. Policy-makers concerned with effective offender management are therefore keen to explore ways in which securing stable accommodation might reduce re-offending.
This chapter seeks to provide evidence from an evaluation of a small-scale attempt to use the procurement of stable accommodation as a key element in a package of support designed to reduce the likelihood of reoffending among a particular group of offenders with short-term sentences for prolific acquisitive crime, 90% of whom were homeless at the time they were sentenced. The evaluated project is managed by a partnership between a Category B Community Prison in the English Midlands and a voluntary sector day centre for homeless adults, to which service users frequently gravitate on release. The evaluation explores the effectiveness of the project in preparing participants for release and in preventing homelessness, re-offending and social isolation. Data were gathered from interviews with service users and key informants from housing and support services to whom referrals are made, in order to advance our understanding of what mediates the relationship between acquiring and maintaining secure accommodation and reductions in criminal activity, thereby informing wider debates around prisoner rehabilitation as a policy objective
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Stability versus progress: finding an effective model of supported housing for formerly homeless people with mental health needs
Finding an effective model of support that enables homeless people with mental health needs to sustain accommodation has presented a continuous challenge to both policy makers and practitioners. This article is based on a study of a residential hostel for formerly homeless men with a variety of mental health conditions in a Midlands city. The hostel was selected because it appeared to work in terms of anecdotal evidence of reduced hospital re-admissions and engagement with support services. By studying the views, experiences and perspectives of all stakeholders, the research sought to understand what was distinctive about the hostel, what worked well and for whom. The findings revealed that three things were of particular importance to stakeholders: residents’ willingness to engage with support services; increased stability in residents’ lives; and increased independence. A common element in the factors that contributed to the hostel’s success against these criteria was the sense of community between staff and residents, which was maintained following moves to independent accommodation. The policy implications for the long-term sustainability of this model will be explored in the conclusion
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Paths to resettlement: understanding the interplay of work and other factors in journeys out of homelessness
Paid employment has been viewed by successive governments in the UK as critical in making transitions out of homelessness, even when combined with problems like substance misuse, criminality or mental ill health. This article presents evidence from a study that sought to subject this belief to critical examination by exploring the relationship between promoting employability and other aspects of resettlement in the lives of a sample of thirty people experiencing homelessness and complex needs. Participants were interviewed twice at six to nine-month intervals to explore their changing motivations and perceptions of housing, work, relationships and hopes for the future.
Analysis used 'pathways' imagery to locate participants along an integrated pathway to understand how these factors related to one another in the pursuit of resettlement. We conclude that all respondents valued work, but its pursuit depended on the structural obstacles that participants faced. People’s location along a resettlement pathway was determined by their sense of control over circumstances, their success in overcoming barriers and the presence of significant others in their lives, and the pursuit of employment among homeless people needs to take account of progress in their resettlement journeys and the place of work in their aspirations
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Choosing to be homeless? Persistent rough sleeping and the perverse incentives of social policy in England
Purpose: With the temporary housing of rough sleepers in response to the Covid-19 emergency, some commentators have been tempted to believe that the rising population of rough sleepers in the UK has finally been reversed. This paper aims to examine the choices made by persistent rough sleepers and how far they are influenced by the perverse incentives of social policies, in order to challenge the view that they sleep rough out of choice.
Design/methodology/approach: Evidence for this paper is derived from two teams of frontline service providers with routine familiarity with the rough sleeping population: a street outreach team and a team of support workers working with adults with multiple and complex needs. Primary data from focus groups were combined with the secondary analysis of both numerical and narrative accounts routinely recorded by both teams.
Findings: The exercise of agency by persistent rough sleepers is constrained by a mixed baggage of complex needs, past negative risk assessments, limited resources and regulatory deterrents to generate choices to reject help that appear irrational. These need to be understood if recent policy initiatives to end rough sleeping are to be effective.
Originality/value: The paper draws on the experience and comprehensive records of practitioners with intimate knowledge of the rough sleeping population. It extends narrative accounts of causes by focusing on key choices to show how the perverse incentives of policy combine with personal factors to incline rough sleeping to persist
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Changing lives, changing systems: a report evaluating Opportunity Nottingham in its first two years of project delivery, 2014-16
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Keeping Everyone In: rough sleepers and the Coronavirus emergency in Nottingham
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Multiple needs: meeting the challenge. Opportunity Nottingham year four (midway) report 2014-2022
This report is an account of the work of Opportunity Nottingham (ON) as it reaches the midway point of its eight-year programme. It builds on the 2016 report Changing lives, changing systems, moving beyond the initial concern with basic effectiveness, and towards an exploration of the ways in which ON has gone further in the pursuit of its goals, and has met some of the challenges it has encountered on the way. The report is therefore divided into three parts:
The beneficiary challenge
The system challenge
The legacy challeng