We all want to feel connected.
We are creatures of connection: family, friends, homes, neighbourhoods, communities. In reality, however, these connections can vary and for some, there are no positive connections at all. The Fulfilling Lives programme engages with people who have multiple complex needs (MCN) across Newcastle and Gateshead and the idea of connection is of particular relevance for this programme to succeed, especially when it comes to housing.
People with MCN are often vulnerably housed: there are issues in their tenancy; they are being released from prison with No Fixed Abode; or they have struggled in their hostel and are facing eviction. As a result, they are almost always reliant upon statutory housing services to provide a housing option, and this housing option has strings attached. Within housing legislation, and as a result of localised housing resources, one of the main questions asked by a Housing Options team is whether or not an applicant has a local connection: “can you prove that you are connected to the area you are asking to be housed?”
For me, this isn’t an issue: if I found myself homeless in Newcastle I would happily be rehoused in this area – it is where I work, it is where my support networks are, it is where I feel connected and most importantly, it is where I feel safe. For some people, those connections don’t look so positive. Newcastle may be where they have lived since childhood, but it is also where they were: sexually abused, had over 30 foster placements, started to self-harm, begun and ended countless abusive relationships and where they are known and underestimated by all services.
“People with MCN are often vulnerably housed: there are issues in their tenancy; they are being released from prison with No Fixed Abode; or they have struggled in their hostel and are facing eviction.”
A person with MCN may be connected to Newcastle, but those connections are not positive and would only serve to tie that person down – how can we expect recovery from chaos when those connections exist at every turn?
What if you didn’t have to prove a connection? What if you could secure housing in a new area and start to build positive connections, as well as repairing some damaged ones? Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead, in partnership with key stakeholders, is trying a different approach to housing and connection. Following the Fulfilling Lives annual meeting in 2015, Gateshead Council made a pledge to work with our programme in relation to local connection and created a policy whereby Fulfilling Lives beneficiaries without a local connection to Gateshead were able to access housing (dependent on other conditions being met). Since this time, Fulfilling Lives has referred four beneficiaries to Gateshead who would ordinarily only be able to access housing in Newcastle. One of these beneficiaries had been street-homeless/sofa-surfing for over a year, and is now in a settled tenancy.
Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead would like multiple complex needs to be acknowledged as a special reason for an applicant to be housed in a different area, to break free of the cycle of negative connections and make a new start in their journey of recovery. This is the challenge: as budgets are squeezed and we focus more and more on localism there is less of an appetite within services to create more flexibility around resources, but flexibility is exactly what our beneficiaries need.
“Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead would like multiple complex needs to be acknowledged as a special reason for an applicant to be housed in a different area, to break free of the cycle of negative connections and make a new start in their journey of recovery.”
Our programme is now looking to extend the work with Gateshead Council to an additional three local authority areas in the North East; together we are stronger for the people we serve and we hope that this work will allow a fundamental change in the way housing services work for, and with, MCN beneficiaries.
