Looking back at the last year, “What a privilege to be a part of it all”

    John from our Outreach team in Bristol reflects on what has been achieved in the past year.

    Looking back at the last year, the first words I think of are tiring and exhausting. But also, what a privilege to be part of it all. What we managed to achieve within that year is absolutely amazing.

    When we first went into lockdown we had to get everyone in, and we had to find the best way to get everybody in. It was that simple. My role is to go onto the streets and reach out to people. To build a relationship. To build trust.

    Sometimes, I was literally able to chat to someone who was sleeping rough, talk to Bristol City Council, and depending on what was available I could get them into emergency accommodation within 20 minutes.

    I have to mention other services. I can only talk about my experience but I can’t emphasize enough how much it was a collective thing. The team, St Mungo’s, other homelessness organisations, the emergency services, Bristol City Council – us as a city, we all pulled together.

    Let’s not forget that most important is the person who is on the street. What we manage to achieve alongside each other. When I think about people who are homeless and how difficult it must have been – one minute they were on a busy street, the next thing they knew the whole city had locked down. How hard that was for people with no homes, for people that needed support or who had alcohol and drug problems. We had to make sure we tailored our support so it was right for their needs.

    You need to remember how fast everything happened at the beginning. Hotels being opened for people on the streets, supported accommodation project making changes so they could keep going – it all happened very quickly! It’s also important to emphasise how Bristol City Council stepped in to help, and how the government gave funding.

    It was stressful and exhausting. I remember some nights I’d get home after a day’s work and fall asleep with my tea on my lap. Go straight to bed and then wake up the next morning to do it all again.

    When we offered people on the streets a hotel room, they couldn’t believe it. Honestly, within a night you could see a difference. An instant stabilisation – being somewhere warm, safe and with a hot meal. Doing the job I do I know how important that is. Imagine how difficult it is on the streets; how hard it is to rest, to find food, to find warm bedding, to find somewhere safe to sleep. And how traumatic that must be for anybody.

    Of course, Covid has been horrific for everyone. But I do have gratitude for some of the positive things that I’ve seen come out of a bad experience. There were people that we had been engaging with for some time – who might have experienced trauma, difficulties with their mental health, or have had challenging experiences – and we were able to get them in for the first time. And because we could get them into emergency accommodation, we have had so many amazing stories of people moving into their own places. Sometimes I see people that I supported into accommodation and they are walking down the street like a completely different person.

    Recently, over winter, we’ve activated our severe weather response three times in Bristol. So we’ve got Covid, we’ve got lockdowns starting and stopping, shops opening and closing and then all of a sudden the weather is freezing and it’s all hands on deck again. We’re out from 6 in the morning until midnight, going out to get everyone in from the cold.

    Even though we achieved what we did in lockdown, sadly there are still people on the street. We can’t lose sight of that. Every single person deserves a home.

    When I reflect back on the last year – exhaustion, tiredness, not sleeping very well – have I recovered from it? Absolutely not! As a team it’s been hard work.

    But also, what a lovely thing to be able to do. What a privilege to be part of it.

    And you know what? I’d do it all again tomorrow.

    St Mungo’s welcomes long term funding commitment to provide homes for people sleeping rough

    The news that the next phase of funding for the Government’s scheme to provide homes for people who had been sleeping rough will cover the next three years, has been described as ‘welcome’ by leading homelessness charity St Mungo’s.

    Today (18 March) the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched the application process for councils to submit their requests for a share of the £212m funding.

    The money, which is part of the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme, will provide funding for both housing and support over the next three years.

    Homes will be made available in every region of England, enabling people who sleep rough, or who are at risk of sleeping rough, to be rehoused in secure, long-term accommodation.

    It is the next stage of investment in longer-term accommodation for people who have experienced rough sleeping, and will be used to support schemes such as those provided by St Mungo’s in partnership with Bristol City Council.

    Chief Executive of St Mungo’s Steve Douglas CBE said: “This is welcome news, and what we hope will be the next step in the development of a long term strategy to end rough sleeping for good.

    “We saw unprecedented collaboration between national, regional and local government, health agencies, homelessness organisations and housing associations in the response to the pandemic.

    “That response undoubtedly saved lives. We must now ensure that this recognition that longer term planning and funding for the homes and the health support that is necessary, is a cross-government commitment.”

    On 26 March last year the Government launched the Everyone In initiative which saw people who had been sleeping rough supported into emergency accommodation to help protect them from the virus.

    So far more than 37,000 people have been helped, with more than 26,000 already moved on to longer-term accommodation.

    Yesterday the Public Affairs Committee released a report analysing the Government’s handling of the issue rough sleeping during the pandemic which praised the “considerable achievement” of the Everyone In scheme, but which also addressed several areas of concern.

    In May last year the Government pledged £161m for the first year of the programme which was to be used to provide more than 3,000 new homes.

    In total the Government has pledged to provide 6,000 homes by the end of the current Parliament.

    World Social Work Day: “I am because we are”

    Today (16 March 2021) is World Social Work Day, which recognises the hard work and dedication of social workers, as well as celebrating best practices in social work. This year, the theme of World Social Work Day is “Ubuntu”. Here, Toni-Lea John-Baptiste, a student social worker on placement with St Mungo’s, discusses the concept of Ubuntu and how it applies to the work we do with our clients.

    I have recently been working as a student social worker with the St. Mungo’s Wellbeing Team in Westminster. While working with the team, I have gained invaluable transferable skills that I will use in my future practice, and I have gained a deeper understanding of the importance of creativity in social work, as well as how social workers can use these skills to think outside of the box when working with service users.

    Due to the current climate of COVID-19, I have had to adapt to remote working. This situation enabled me to draw upon my creativity to engage service users and promote digital literacy in a time where we heavily rely on technology.  Upon reflection, I have realised how important creativity is as a social worker, to be able to adapt and work in any environment.

    The idea of Ubuntu is all about humanism. It is the belief that your sense of self is shaped by the relationships you have with other people ‘I am, only because we are’, and this was a key theme throughout my placement at St Mungo’s. As an example, we used this philosophy as the basis to create a postcard project which involved members of the Westminster community sending ‘messages of hope’ and discussing things that have helped them during this time, to residents within the different projects of the Westminster Wellbeing Pathway.

    At the heart of this project was a sense of community and helping one another, through encouragement, regardless of who the person is or if they even knew them. This was ubuntu in its purest form, as the project was all about helping one another as humans and extending love and hope to echo the philosophy that as a human ‘I am’ ONLY ‘because we are’. It was a truly beautiful project that I am grateful to have been a part of.

    My placement has encouraged my creativity as a student social worker, which has played a big part in me developing projects to engage clients. I found that when working remotely, using a person-centred approach to develop tailor-made projects for clients was the best way to engage and support them.  An example of this would be my work with a client, in which I used a strengths-based approach to create a project based on their artwork. This then led to working on an intensive 1-1 basis, to create a virtual art exhibit with this client, to not only showcase their artwork, but also potentially create a social enterprise opportunity.

    Throughout all of this, particularly because of COVID-19, I’ve realised that you can’t limit social work to a building or a particular place. It’s about treating people as humans, with respect and dignity.

    Next Steps Accommodation Programme: Working together to deliver move on accommodation in Bristol

    With over 50 years’ experience providing a wide range of frontline homelessness and housing services across London and the south of England, St Mungo’s works with individuals throughout all stages of homelessness. For people with a history of sleeping rough, the move from supported accommodation to independent housing can often be a challenging step. Without the right accommodation and support available, sometimes individuals can end up returning to the streets.

    To break this cycle St Mungo’s has developed a model of housing acquisition and management with an experienced support team in place to help people move from the homelessness pathways system into their own self-contained accommodation. With good quality, affordable, move-on accommodation alongside sustained 1-2-1 support, residents will be able to build the skills they need to not only maintain their tenancy, but to thrive in their new home eventually accessing fully independent housing.

    With teams based in cities and towns across the south of England and an infrastructure of support functions providing specialist expertise – in areas such as property and asset management, recruitment and data security – St Mungo’s is able to deliver services at scale with the local knowledge and existing partnerships ensuring that these projects can move quickly and are the right fit for their local communities. When the government announced the Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP) funding for 2020/21, St Mungo’s developed a number of proposals built on this central principle. In Bristol, working closely with Bristol City Council and Homes England, a bid for funding to support the acquisition of a number self-contained units of accommodation was successfully developed.

    The Funding

    On 24 May the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced the Next Steps Accommodation Programme funding, part of their COVID-19 Rough Sleeping response, for both short and longer term support for people with a history of sleeping rough or those who were made vulnerable to rough sleeping by the pandemic.

    As part of NSAP, over £150 million was announced to deliver 3,300 units of longer-term, move on accommodation within 20/21. As well as capital funding, organisations could also apply for revenue funding to provide support for people moving into the accommodation.

    With the Everyone In initiative seeing thousands of people being supported away from sleeping rough into hotel accommodation, the NSAP funding would allow the sector to find long term housing solutions ensuring the move into emergency accommodation was just the first step towards a safe and secure home, rather than a temporary measure.

    ‘The NSAP is funded by the MHCLG and managed by Homes England (with the exception of London where the GLA managed the funding). In Bristol this was allocated via Bristol City Council, who also managed the revenue funding stream.

    The Partnership

    Whilst partnership working has always been central to the way that St Mungo’s plans and delivers homelessness and housing services, the Covid-19 emergency response showed what could be achieved when all parties work together with a genuinely collaborative approach.

    St Mungo’s works closely with the MHCLG at both a national and regional level resulting in valuable and aligned partnership working across a number of areas, including policy discussions, service developments and capital projects. At a national level, St Mungo’s and Homes England have a strong relationship supported by a shared approach towards strategic planning focussed on long term housing solutions around homelessness.

    In Bristol, St Mungo’s has worked alongside Bristol City Council for over ten years, delivering a number of commissioned homelessness services alongside a number of other housing projects. Shared values and a strong working history formed the basis of a collaborative emergency response that, so far, has seen 546 people supported into emergency hotel accommodation in the city during the pandemic.

    St Mungo’s worked closely with Bristol City Council developing a bid for NSAP funding that would lead to property acquisition to ultimately benefit the city. With rapidly increasing house prices, the private rented sector in Bristol is inaccessible to the vast majority of clients using homelessness services and, as a result, Bristol City Council is working to increase availability of affordable accommodation. St Mungo’s NSAP bid proposal supported this strategy, with a plan to purchase good quality housing that would be both affordable and accessible, providing a long
    term asset available for people in the city.

    Homes England, working with the local authority, administer the NSAP funding for capital and revenue applications. As St Mungo’s would be leading on all the decisions around purchasing the properties, the NSAP bid included documentation to demonstrate the knowledge and resources in place to ensure that only good quality, value for money accommodation would be acquired in line with a robust set of property specifications.

    The Project

    In a unique position to be able to both purchase property and provide experienced support teams for the accommodation, St Mungo’s were able to move quickly once they were awarded the NSAP funding. The St Mungo’s Properties and Acquisition team had a number of properties of interest in Bristol that had already met the criteria for purchase.

    With our Bristol-based staff, the team were able to begin the purchase process immediately whilst regional and national service teams could start modelling the support aspect of the project. A property in east Bristol comprising 11 self-contained units of accommodation, made up of 1 and 2 bedroom flats, was identified and
    assessed against the St Mungo’s property criteria. The funding was allocated in November 2020 and the property purchase was completed in December 2020.

    With a further 10 individual accommodation units currently in the process of being purchased before the end of the financial year, the first round of NSAP funding will have supported St Mungo’s to buy a total of 21 units of self-contained accommodation in Bristol.

    Whilst the properties were being purchased, the St Mungo’s Move On Housing Services team worked closely with Bristol City Council to develop a support model for individuals moving into the accommodation. The St Mungo’s team will provide ‘floating support’ with staff members visiting the accommodation once a week, as well as opportunities for clients to arrange individual appointments at the local St Mungo’s office. The support team will focus on preparing clients to move into the private rented sector, building skills such as budgeting and understanding tenancy responsibilities.

    With continued support from Homes England, St Mungo’s will be able to expand this vital offer, increasing Bristol’s availability of good quality, secure housing for people that cannot access accommodation in the private rental sector. With expert support from St Mungo’s teams, the NSAP properties will have a huge impact on the lives of the people that live in them. It is only by offering long term stability to people, alongside the skills needed to live independently, that the cycle of homelessness can be broken.

    The Response

    Eddie Hughes MP, Minister for Housing and Rough Sleeping said: “Looking back at an incredibly challenging twelve months, everyone who has helped protect rough sleepers, including St Mungo’s and other councils, charities, housing providers and support groups, should be immensely proud of the role they have played in our internationally recognised response.

    “This programme plays a vital role in maintaining this progress, with long-term, secure homes providing a safe place to live so that rough sleepers do not have to return to our streets.”

    Homes England said: “Through MHCLG’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme, we’ve supported local councils to fast-track long term, move-on accommodation, creating homes for some of the most vulnerable in our society.

    “St Mungo’s and Bristol City Council’s work to provide homes for 21 local people is a brilliant example of the tangible impact of this programme. Through our continued partnership, we hope to make this a reality for even more members of the local community.”

    Councillor Helen Godwin, Cabinet Member for Women, Children and Homes, Bristol City Council, said: “The pandemic gave us an opportunity to get a lot of people off the streets, and now we need to help them move on to the next stage of their journey.

    “This is a much needed alternative housing solution for people who do not need the level of intense support provided in supported housing, yet currently need a bit of a wrap-around support to help them gain the skills and confidence needed to maintain a tenancy and a home.

    “We are really pleased to be working in partnership with St Mungo’s, United Communities and Solon Housing to provide these new homes, as tackling an issue like homelessness cannot be done by one organisation alone. We all need to work together and continue to come up with new solutions to help support some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”

    Nicki Doran, Senior Move On Housing Manager at St Mungo’s, said: “We’re really excited to shortly launch the new NSAP programme in Bristol and to expand Move On Housing Services in a new area.

    “This project will provide essential support and accommodation to those in need of a stepping stone towards fully independent housing.

    “We have been working closely with Bristol City Council to ensure that the referral and support elements of the project are tailored to the specific needs of the client group so that there is consistency across the board from all NSAP providers. This collaborative approach has enabled us to pull on knowledge and learnings, across both the organisation and sector, in a bid to secure successful outcomes for our clients.”

    Statistics, announcements and commitments put homelessness centre stage

    Last week was a busy one in the homelessness sector. Our Head of Policy, Campaigns and Research, Beatrice Orchard rounds up, and reflects on, the key moments. 

    The official rough sleeping statistics for England were published last week. They show a 37% reduction in the number of people sleeping rough on a single night, falling from 4,266 in autumn 2019 to 2,688 in autumn 2020. This is the lowest figure since 2013.

    The statistics also show just what can be achieved with a concerted effort and strong partnership working to help people rebuild their lives away from the streets, which is exactly what happened under the ‘Everyone In’ initiative.

    As usual there was much debate and discussion about the extent to which this ‘nightly snapshot’ can ever tell us about the true scale of rough sleeping across the country.

    The Everyone In initiative has provided safe, emergency accommodation and ongoing support for those sleeping rough, as well as others at risk of doing so. At the latest count 37,430 have been helped since March last year, a tremendous achievement and an unprecedented opportunity to support thousands of people to recover from homelessness.

    What the official rough sleeping statistics do provide is a consistent measure, independently verified by Homeless Link, which can be used to help review progress on ending rough sleeping. And it was extremely welcome to see both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Housing commit once again to achieving this goal.

    As well as praising the efforts of everyone involved in securing the reduction in rough sleeping during the past year, including councils, outreach workers, volunteers and civil servants, the Government also took the opportunity to say a bit more about its future Rough Sleeping Strategy.

    We heard Housing First ‘was integral to that mission’ following calls from the Centre for Social Justice, St Mungo’s and others for a significant expansion of the approach.

    Equally, the Housing Secretary told Parliament that the ‘marriage of health and housing’ would be at the heart of the Government’s strategy.

    The pandemic has served as another reminder that homelessness and health are inextricably linked. Recent research by St Mungo’s found almost one in four (24%) of our clients has a health condition which put them at serious risk from Covid-19, with illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and severe respiratory conditions being common.

    The research also found that joined-up working between health and homelessness services has been a key factor in the success of Everyone In. Ministers have agreed and committed to ‘fortify those partnerships between local homelessness and health services, and between central and local government and the NHS.’

    We stand ready to work with the Government to deliver on the recommendations in our Housing and Health report to turn this commitment into a reality.

    Finally, there was also the hint that the Government’s strategy would also be about modernising the approach to street homelessness and finally repealing the 1824 Vagrancy Act which criminalises rough sleeping.

    The Government’s review of the act is still to be published, but the Housing Secretary has now agreed publicly with MPs and homelessness charities that the ‘antiquated’ act should be repealed.

    St Mungo’s has long advocated for an end to the Vagrancy Act. Its very existence runs against modern understandings of homelessness and often drives people sleeping rough further from the support they need.

    A renewed strategy and a modern day approach, which embeds the lessons from the pandemic, is exactly what is needed. With continued political will, and close partnership working, we can make much more progress on the journey to ending rough sleeping for good.

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