Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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Out of hostels in two years?

May 22 2009
The ‘Supporting People‘ guidelines might have seemed like a good idea at the time Moving out of hostel accommodation into their own flats in two years. Is this viable? Under current 'Supporting People' (SP) guidelines (targets), hostels will have to move tenants into their own accommodation within two years. The first question this begs is: why this two-year target? What research was this based on? Is this just another "it seemed like a good idea at the time" idea? Is SP showing the homelessness sector and their tenants that they mean business? Are they flexing their proverbial muscles, wanting results for their not so mega bucks? I ask, because SP payments to organisations have decreased over the last few years. The two-year turnaround agenda seems flawed. However, to be fair, I have heard it suggested that SP have factored some flexibility into these turnaround times. Maybe they are not such ogres after all - they are just in "flex and relax mode". We shall see. Are they saying two to two-and-a-half years, two to three years, or two to four years? How far will their flexibility stretch - as much as their paymasters will allow? Now add to the mix the private rented schemes and the back-to-work agenda, and the chronically-dependent, long-term poly-drug user and rough sleeper. A far more complex picture is starting to emerge. In my experience, this "push 'em through, get 'em working and stabilise their drug/alcohol use and make them ready for independent living in two years" agenda is unworkable and has not been thought through. Take, for instance, the private rented sector. Clients awaiting permanent accommodation will resist going into "private rented" because they fear that they are being left to the vagaries of the housing market (and, if push comes to shove, they are). Rents for private rented accommodation in a lot of cases are twice those in social housing. So for people who already find it difficult to engage with mainstream society, the private sector will only be for a motivated few. I sense this could end up being a costly experiment‚Äö?Ѭ? There is evidence that long-term dependent substance users have a history of failed tenancies, and use alcohol and illicit drugs on top of their prescribed medication. Drug and alcohol use, in my opinion, are the number one cause of tenancy breakdown. Dependant substance use brings with it a high level of 'baggage' - non-payment of service charge or rent, tenancies being taken over by other users, predation, dealing, violence and the selling of 'keys' (tenancies), to name but a few. Will they be "made ready" in two years? Who will be taken to task to deliver these SP targets - the hostels or the drug services? Lastly, the back-to-work agenda is going to be difficult for people with a history of long-term unemployment, rough sleeping and dependant substance use. I suppose we can force people off benefits and into 'work'. However, in the light of the attitude of "I'm better off on the dole and getting housing benefit than working" and with the promise of lowpaid work, this whole agenda is going to be an uphill struggle. Within this two-year turnaround period, on their ever decreasing budgets, which of these issues should SP 'be wanting' service providers to address first? As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, this free market approach to the caring professions is starting to bite. So when this fabrication of agenda-driven outcomes, targets, data collection, job creation schemes (however meaningless) and bidding rounds becomes more about the structures of service delivery than delivering a service, we must be seen as failing in our duty of care to those already marginalised by society.
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