Client Group And Support Needs

The CRC’s State Of The Countryside report highlights that the average age of the population of rural areas is approximately five years higher than that of urban areas. However, the provision of older homelessness services in not particularly extensive, although there are a number of excellent complementary services, including affordable transport schemes, such as that in North Dorset, and advice and health drop-in sessions. A recent report by Age Concern, Delivering For Older People In Rural Areas, identifies good practice in the delivery of a range of services to older people in rural areas, and a complementary collection of case studies provides more details about services referred to in the report.

Homeless Link has also been running a pilot project, working with a number of local authorities across the country to identify the needs and provision for older homeless people. For more information about the project please contact Sarah Gorton at sarah.gorton@homelesslink.org.uk or on 020 7960 3057.

“There’s no way that most young people in this area can afford to get onto the property ladder, and we’re seeing more and more of them faced with the prospect of nowhere to go if they leave the family home.” Personal Advisor, Young Person’s Advice Service.

Despite the relatively high average age of the population in rural areas, a high percentage of services are for young people. As the State Of The Countryside report identifies, the private rented market is frequently beyond the reach of young people. This is true both in respect of the limited availability of rented properties (substantially less as a proportion of total housing stock than in urban areas) and the prohibitively high rent. Furthermore, the average house price in rural areas is over 20% higher than in urban areas.

A number of services for young people have sought to focus on homelessness prevention and, in some instances, have met with significant success. Several organisations, including SHYPP in Herefordshire and Exeter Homeless Action Group, run interactive sessions in local secondary schools to educate and advise pupils on homelessness in the area. These may include Q&A sessions, workshops exploring examples of young people who have become homeless, and videos highlighting the services that the organization provides and client case studies. Family mediation can help young people and their families to resolve issues that have put the young person at risk of homelessness. Often agreement can be reached that sees the young person remain at home, but where this is not possible suitable temporary accommodation will be sought.

In some cases, a young person will be placed with a host family, assessed by a statutorily-funded organization and with assistance from support staff, until more suitable longer-term accommodation can be sourced. Supported lodging schemes may also provide a short-term option where suitable alternatives are not available.

Mendip YMCA is an excellent example of how an organisation can, over time, develop a broad range of services to provide for the needs of young people in the area including, in this case, a host family scheme, advise, mediation, a rent deposit scheme, resettlement support and a programme of schools-based education. A national pilot programme, funded by the CLG, has also recognised the need to tackle youth homelessness.

There seems to be some debate about the need for mental health services in rural areas. The State Of The Countryside report suggests that the need is lower in rural areas, although other anecdotal evidence hints that mental health issues are as prevalent as in urban areas but that there is simply a paucity of service provision. This again highlights the need for, and difficulty of, proving the scale and nature of homelessness and related issues in rural areas. Where there is an identified need for high support, including provision of mental health services, dispersed units of accommodation are an alternative to larger scale projects, but realistically the higher costs of providing such high support services across a wide area are more easily absorbed by larger providers and RSLs.

The impact on services of foreign nationals from the accession states has become an area of increasing interest and concern for agencies across the country, many of whom report an increased demand on services without a corresponding increase in funding. A recent report by the CRC highlights some of the issues faced by service providers, including funding from local councils that woefully underestimates the growth in immigrant populations, especially in rural areas, and Homeless Link have also researched the needs and provision of agencies working with A8 Nationals.

The need for service provision for Gypsies and Travellers is also particularly acute in rural areas. Local authorities have a duty to recognise and cater for Gypsies & Travellers living in their area, and to include them in their housing needs assessments, but some have lagged behind in the assessment process. Provision by local councils varies greatly, with some agencies exasperated by the scale of homelessness among this client group not being acknowledged, land for their use neither identified nor developed, and not enforcing standardised rent and conditions on sites. The implementation of local connection policies also proves prohibitive gaining access to services, and with a transient client group there seems to be a tendency on the part of some local authorities to “pass the buck” as one provider told us.

The `We’re Talking Homes`_ project, funded by the Ethnic Minorities Innovation Fund was set up to identify good practice and support local authorities and their partner stakeholders to develop ways to tackle and prevent homelessness amongst Gypsies and Travellers in the North of England. In its first eight months, the project helped around 80 families to present as homeless to their local authorities, in part by using key workers from within the Gypsy and Traveller communities to act as a “bridge” between those communities and the local authorities. Despite encountering varying levels of practice, the project has also reported that in some areas local authorities are actively seeking to work with the communities. For instance, Vale Royal council hired a generator to provide electricity for 20 families on an existing site, recognising this measure might help prevent homelessness and be more cost-effective in the longer term. Across Cheshire there has also been a great deal of work undertaken to support this client group, including the setting up of an advisory group on Gypsies and Travellers, which is attended a Gypsy/Traveller Co-ordinator and Cheshire Police, who have helped to mediate with local communities and free up potential sites for travellers, for instance in a disused bus lane in Runcorn. The advisory group has also sought to establish the level of housing need through conducting community interviews, which have identified over 150 Gypsies and Travellers in the region.

Other useful good practice reports and guidance are also available, including:

• Counting Gypsies & Travellers, a CLG review of existing count systems
• A good practice guide published by the Welsh Assembly on consulting with traveller groups and local communities on identifying sites for their use
• A CLG development guide on Tackling Homelessness Amongst Ethnic Minority Households
• The Rural Community Council for Berkshire (CCB), has a Hard To Reach programme, with a dedicated ‘Education & Inclusion Team’, serving an increasingly diverse client group including Gypsies & Travellers