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doors to let people sleep on the floor. Foxton’s chief executive Jeff Marsh said:
“The work we did in the past made a difference, but three years ago we started to re-think how we did things. Many agencies working with the homeless insist they stop drinking or using drugs before they will be accepted for accommodation. If they relapse they are at risk of being evicted. We wanted to try something different.” Then in 2015, Foxton launched its Housing First project, based on a model developed in the US that offers homeless people stable accommodation immediately. From there, they are supported with any personal challenges they face, including health and substance misuse issues.
council funding cuts are disproportionately hitting those areas that have also seen the highest numbers of deaths among homeless people. Labour’s analysis revealed that nine of the 10 councils with the highest numbers of homeless deaths in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017 had cuts of more than three times the national average of £254 per household. They are Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Blackburn, Liverpool and the London boroughs of Camden, Westminster, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets. Birmingham is the country’s seventh most deprived locality and it has seen the highest number of homeless deaths, with 90 people estimated to have died between 2013 and 2017. The city’s council has experienced a cut in spending power per household of more than £939 for every home since 2010, according to Labour. Up in the north west of England,
Blackburn is the only town included in Labour’s list, with the tenth highest number of deaths in a four-year period. The Lancashire town had an estimated 41 deaths among homeless people up to 2017, while spending power for every household has been cut by £879.
GROWTH IN COUNCIL HOUSE BUILDING Many councils are responding to this crisis by beefing up their housebuilding ambitions, with a focus on the delivery of low rent homes, but they are building from a very low base and new houses take a long time to get from planning and design to being occupied. In the last seven years councils across London have managed to build over 2,000 new homes – a huge increase on the 70 they built in the previous seven years, but nowhere near enough to make meaningful inroads into waiting lists. To get back to the housebuilding levels of the early 1950s when councils contributed about half of the new homes built each
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year, the National Housing Federation is calling on the Government to spend £12.8bn a year over the next decade. The NHF says this investment would kick
start a nationwide housebuilding programme of around 1.45 million social homes for rent and shared ownership. Their research shows that England needs 145,000 new social homes a year, to clear the backlog of people who need a home and to meet future demand. It would also boost the economy, reduce the benefits bill and help more people to get on the housing ladder, while at the same time ensuring that millions of people no longer get stuck in inappropriate homes or on the streets.
PRACTICAL & PERSONAL SOLUTIONS Back in the north west, Preston is a near neighbour to Blackburn and the city council is working with a local charity to provide rough sleepers with a range of support services under the ‘Housing First’ banner. This guarantees them accommodation, as well as a range of health and social services. In Preston, the Foxton Centre has been
working with rough sleepers for the past 15 years. Through its outreach work, partly funded by the council, the charity identifies rough sleepers, and offers them support and safety.
On a weekly basis, the team of community social workers and volunteers take to the streets at all hours to make contact with people sleeping rough. The rough sleepers are encouraged to use the community café at the centre where they can get hot cooked food. The centre also receives referrals from social workers, the NHS and the probation service. There are showers and washing machines for them to use and staff are on hand to help them find accommodation, put them in touch with a doctor and help with their finances and benefits. When the weather is really bad, the centre opens its
WHOLE PERSON APPROACH Foxton worked with a local property management company, MITEC, to develop the project. MITEC supplied the properties, while Foxton uses a team of 4.5 full-time equivalent case workers to provide intensive support for the clients, whose housing benefits helps pay for the scheme. Mr Marsh said: “These clients can have
severe mental illness, poor physical health, long-term limiting illnesses and learning disabilities. We keep the caseloads small (around eight at a time) so we can work with them to get the support they need. The goal is to find them permanent accommodation and get their lives back on track.”
The number of properties in Preston’s Housing First project is increasing all the time. It now stands at 35. Around 70 per cent of people provided with accommodation stay for at least 12 months, before moving on, usually to a council or housing association rented property. Foxton and the city council worked together to apply for funding from the Rough Sleepers Initiative to expand the work it does. In October 2018, the council got over £100,000 to extend the outreach work. There are now two full-time posts to complement the two 16-hour-a-week posts already in operation. This has allowed more frequent outreach work. In January, the council was awarded £500,000 funding to set up a Homeless Hub. Work will soon start on upgrading the facilities at the community centre, to include a medical room for a range of health services and some bedrooms offering short term, 72-hour emergency accommodation. This sort of practical support is making a huge impact on the lives of individuals in Preston and helping to prevent them joining the terrible statistics on homeless deaths. A combination of Housing First schemes and a bigger housebuilding programme could deliver positive change across the country.
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