PLUS Project Mayoral Election Forum – 25th November
2015 – Meeting Notes
List of Attendees
First
Name
Catherine
Last Name
Organisation
Thomas
Advising London
Hilary
Nightingale
Cardinal Hume Centre
Alex
Kennedy
Crisis
Denise
Hill
Evolve Housing & Support
Deborah
Halling
Greater London Authority
Alison
Gelder
Housing Justice
Miranda
Griffith
London Borough of Camden
Dean
Harris
New Horizon Youth Centre
Sarah
Halsey
Providence Row Charity
Alison
Greer
Salvation Army
Antoinette Hoffland
Shelter
Ross
Hughes
SHP Wandsworth
Simon
Wasser
Single Homeless Project (SHP)
Sara
Turner
St Mungo's Broadway
Aim of the event
To raise awareness of the 2016 Mayoral Elections and the role of the Mayor in
reducing rough sleeping.
Main points from Paul Anderson and Alex Kennedy’s presentation
Please see Paul’s presentation for further details.
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Mayoral Elections are taking place 5th May 2016
London Assembly Elections on the same day (The London Assembly elected body, scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London)
Main candidates:
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Labour – Sadiq Khan
Conservative – Zac Goldsmith
Green Party – Sian Berry
Liberal Democrat – Caroline Pidgeon
UKIP – Peter Whittle
Responsibilities of the Mayor
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Development of a housing strategy for London:
o What type of housing should be built?
o Where and when should housing be built (in conjunction with the
boroughs)
o Influencing Councils where feels appropriate
o Provide leadership in the area
o Commissioning of Rough Sleeping Services.
Draft Asks of the Mayor
1. Provide strategic leadership and investment in addressing rough sleeping in
London including bringing together boroughs for a pan-London approach.
2. Work with partners to find long term solutions which prevent people from
becoming homeless in the first place and find quick routes off the street for
those who do
3. Ensure there is a supply of genuinely affordable housing for single homeless
people
4. Increase access to the private rented sector for, and support for, those on
very low incomes
5. Ensure that no-one ends up destitute on the streets of London
6. Embed tackling homelessness across all services within the Mayor’s
responsibility
7. Lobby central government for a better deal for Londoners on very low
incomes and for greater powers to prevent and tackle homelessness
Main points from Deborah Halling’s presentation
Please see Deborah’s presentation for further details.
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2008 campaign commitment to end rough sleeping in London
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homelessness organisations combined forces to lobby the Mayoral
candidates
It makes sense to tackle rough sleeping at a pan-London level:
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relatively small numbers across London
mobile, unevenly distributed group
local authorities have no legal obligation to accommodate many of those who
sleep rough
The Mayor’s role is:
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Strategic
Commissioning of services.
Strategic role has two main elements
1. London Housing Strategy, with which local authorities’ strategies are legally
required to be “in general conformity” – three fold commitment around:
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prevention
quick intervention
focus on the most entrenched
2. Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Group, successor to the London Delivery Board that
the Mayor set up in 2009 intended to lead and coordinate efforts to tackle
rough sleeping:
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e.g., it identifies the most entrenched rough sleepers (RS205s) and
keeps a close eye on work to assist them
e.g., No First Night Out pilot to support housing options services’
work to prevent rough sleeping e.g., protocol for outreach services
Some key services commissioned by the Mayor (currently commissioning for 2016)
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StreetLink
London Street Rescue.
No Second Night Out.
London Reconnections.
SIB: Payment by outcomes project for a cohort of 820 with a history of
returning to the streets.
Housing First: Pilot project.
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Clearing House and Tenancy Support Teams
pan-London severe weather provision
day centres and soup runs
Homeless Health Peer Advocacy
Mental Health Service Interventions toolkit
Group Discussion: Asks of the Mayor – Priorities
The following are the key points on Homeless Link’s Campaign with Crisis,
Centrepoint and St Mungo’s Broadway on priorities for the incoming Mayor and the
thoughts of the group on areas they felt should be priority asks of the Mayor.
8. Most attendees felt point 5 was most important “Ensure that no-one ends up
destitute on the streets of London” with the following two key points made.
1. Take a pan-London approach to ensure no one ends up homeless and
destitute on the streets
2. Vision – inter-connectedness of all the asks, to ensure no one ends up
destitute on the streets we need to work with partners, increase access
to the PRS, and lobby Government.
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Other points mentioned as priority were numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 with a suggestion
that points 3 and 4 could be combined.
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The group also felt it important that prevention work involves families as well as
single people.
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Don’t leave young people out. Young people are most likely to be hidden e.g.,
transient, sleeping on friend’s floors. There is a lack of accommodation options,
especially for those under 25.
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Also important to include tenancy sustainment – important to keep people off the
streets.
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If you would like to be involved in the campaign email
paul.anderson@homelesslink.org.uk
Your Vote Matters
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Funded by the cabinet office to increase the number of homeless people and
those housed in social housing on the electoral register, especially young people
and people from BAMER communities.
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Organisations receive a bursary from Homeless Link. Organisations run
workshops using a resource pack. 1 to 1 discussions with rough sleepers have
been more successful and engaged those clients more.
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Social housing sector has been harder to engage.
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The project so far has achieved 1300 new voter registrations.
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Evolve Housing found it was easier to engage clients coming up to the general
election. The last 3 months have been more of a challenge. They have run
events using the resource packs available from Homeless Link.
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NHYC have created a visual manifesto. This has fed into the Fairness
Commission and Youth Forum. The day centre will be running a hustings for the
Mayoral elections.
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Up coming elections include the London Mayoral elections and Police and Crime
Commissioners in May 2016.
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If any agency would like a project pack, email
Joanne.Prestidge@homelesslink.org.uk
Project Updates
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Cardinal Hume – Immigration advice is currently very popular. Have 3 solicitors
giving advice to level 3. Working with City West Homes in Westminster to
negotiate around housing benefit to help sustain people’s tenancies and prevent
evictions.
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Housing Justice – Night shelters are mostly all open. There are new shelters
opening this year. Hope to receive the data from last year’s shelters shortly. Just
opened a new housing project for destitute migrants.
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SHP – Looking at the PIE model to shape services, especially for clients with
complex needs. Also starting to think about the new Housing Benefit back dating
rule due to take effect from April 2016. Homeless Link has been working with
DWP, however they won’t move from 1 month of backdating (currently 6
months).
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Evolve Housing and Support – new work and learning project being rolled out
across all projects. Crisis is running some workshops in Croydon.
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Providence Row – Looking to source more accommodation for women and
strengthen links.
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St Mungo’s Broadway – Looking to run a campaign in February 2016 around
complex needs and policy asks. Reduction in social rents also an issue.
Homeless Link has been doing lots of work on social housing rent. On the 14/12
there will be an amendment reading in the House of Lords.
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Advising London – is seeing an increase in debt advice services. In LBs
Southwark and Lambeth language barriers have been overcome by the use of
interpreters.
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Shelter – New online tool for DH payments i.e. the best method to contact each
LA. Also online tool looking at energy cost saving. Webchat advisors on
homeless pages of website to fast track people with homelessness issues.
Advice services directory should be back live in the next day or two.
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NHYC – hard to place some clients in accommodation. Day centre provides free
food, laundry; satellite services run drug counselling, mediation, health advice.
London Youth Gateway accepts clients pan London, so send referrals if you
have any young people needing help. PRS is the biggest challenge.
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Salvation Army – looking to remodel what services are provided.
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GLA – rough sleeping services to be commissioned from April 2016 are due to
be announced shortly.
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Homeless Link – spotlight on autism and learning disability 16th December.
Email london.plus@homelesslink.org.uk for more details. Paul Anderson will be
looking at the CSR and how this will affect the Homelessness Prevention Grant
and Local Welfare Assistance.
Upcoming PLUS Meetings
22nd January - Spotlight on Migrant Homelessness and Destitution
Useful Resources
http://yourvotematters.homeless.org.uk/ - including downloadable resource pack
http://www.londonelects.org.uk/im-voter - Information about the Mayor and London
Assembly do the voting system for the Mayor and how to register to vote.
If you have any questions or would like to book a place on the event above please
contact London.Plus@homelesslink.org.uk