Recidivism: ways to break the cycle

That is why Yorkshire Metropolitan Housing, a member of Yorkshire Housing Group, has teamed up with Action Housing Association, the National Probation Service and Doncaster council to provide 12 homes for ex-offenders in the town.

Each customer will receive intensive but tailored support to help them settle into their new home and cope with their new life.

We are doing this for all the right reasons, because we believe that a good home can be the first step to obtaining a job and forming stable relationships.

Appropriate support from agencies, as well as new friends and neighbours, can help offenders change their ways.

Housing associations have the resources and capacity to show the way, demonstrating to others that no section of society should be written off.

But we are also doing it so that we can provide intensive and focused support to those who need it, so that we can reduce the turnover of homes attractive to single people, to strengthen our business and offer special services – this gives us an edge over our competition.

Our hearts, our minds and our wallets are fully engaged.

What we are doing is not unique and, as always, is based on strong partnerships. This is how it works.

The National Probation Service makes referrals and the decision as to whether to accept the ex-offender into the scheme is made jointly by all three organisations.

This is based on whether appropriate accommodation can be offered (for example, accommodation in a location suitable for a sex offender) and, more importantly, whether the applicant is willing to accept the support package on offer. Receiving support is a condition of the tenancy and is funded through transitional housing benefit.

The housing officer and support worker undertake joint visits to assess each applicant prior to an offer of a tenancy. Five levels of support are available, ranging from around 13 hours per week to around two hours.

The highest level of support is usually offered at the start of the tenancy so that customers have the help they need in setting up their tenancy, thereby increasing the likelihood of success.

We provide a flexible service tailored to an individual’s needs, where the level and type of intensive housing management or tenancy support and the length of time for which it is provided is adapted according to individual requirements.

Regular reviews of the support package ensure that the level of support provided can increase or decrease, depending on how the tenancy is being managed.

Action Housing offers a range of services to customers: one-on-one care and support through key working; support in addressing offending behaviour; support and advice on substance misuse; benefits advice and help with literacy; recreation activities; and help with life skills.

Yorkshire Metropolitan Housing has a view that floating support has two main aims: to help stabilise and integrate tenants and to prevent tenancies failing as a result of personal or financial crisis.

Audit Commission research suggests that every time a tenancy breaks down, it costs the landlord more than £2,000 per change of tenancy. This can be reduced with the use of a floating support scheme, such as the one developing in Doncaster.

This enables residents moving from accommodation with high levels of support, such as a hostel or group home, to move successfully into permanent self-contained housing when they might otherwise find the move too traumatic without some period of intensive housing management support.

When selecting the homes to include in this project, consideration was given to areas where the association was already experiencing significant housing management problems stemming from the inability of some customers to successfully sustain their tenancies.

This tended to be in accommodation provided for young single people. The floating support scheme offered a practical solution in terms of being able to continue to house vulnerable single people while at the same time ensuring that a good housing management service was provided to all customers.

In the long term, providing the support that vulnerable individuals require ensures that they can successfully maintain their tenancies, which should in turn result in reduced turnover and increased stability within those schemes.

The opportunity for prompt and appropriate intervention reduces tenancy failures, which in turn affects the level of rent arrears and voids costs associated with abandoned properties.

The floating support scheme provides equality of choice and the opportunity for vulnerable people to live independently in a safe and secure environment, while meeting their social, cultural and individual needs.

The project is in its early stages, with six tenancies already allocated. So far, the signs are positive.

The new customers have settled into their new homes and have shown a willingness to make their tenancies work. It is clear that the assistance, advice and support that they are receiving from their support workers is welcomed.

The project is an example of how partnership working can lead to meeting the housing needs of difficult groups of people without jeopardising the housing management service provided to other customers.

Roy Wallington is a director, and Claudia Walsh an area manager, at Yorkshire Metropolitan Housing.