ARCH AWARDS FOR BEST PRACTICE 2009

CATEGORY: WORKING HOLISTICALLY

WINNER: MILTON KEYNES COUNCIL

Milton Keynes Council won the ARCH Award for Best Practice 2009 in the ‘Working Holistically’ category.

Milton Keynes Council Housing Service is very proud of the improvements it has made in addressing homelessness and removing unnecessary waiting times for housing; in particular for young homeless people and young people leaving care.  This was achieved by taking a lead on the issue and working effectively with a range of partner organisations.

The council has introduced a novel housing options scheme.  The scheme is based on an options interview, which provides advice to all and help with direct housing for people in urgent housing need.  The scheme does not allocate property on a points basis, nor does it require people to bid for properties like most CBL schemes. Instead, people are able to make a real choice of home from a range of properties which match there need. 

Clients are offered a real choice of homes from a pool of property made up of ;

• the councils own stock,
• private rent accommodation,
• social housing to which the council has nomination rights,
• Or for those who can afford it, shared ownership. 

As a consequence, there is no register and no waiting list.  There are on average 1,000 approaches from the public each month, but less than 20 homeless applications a month, and only about 100 clients in temporary accommodation. On average a permanent home is found in about eight weeks, this includes specialist accommodation; for general needs housing the outcome can be sooner.  This compares with substantive numbers of homeless applicants and at its peak in 2002/3 over 1,600 households in temporary accommodation.

The scheme has a range of options to help young homeless applications.

For those leaving care early contact between children’s service and the housing service is used to provide suitable accommodation linked to appropriate support services.

A Tenant Support team help the more vulnerable to sustain there tenancy, services include;

• Setting-up home in a new Tenancy
  
• Advice and assistance with Welfare Benefits Claims
  
• Budgeting advice and assistance
  
• Access to other agencies and services
  
• Access to healthcare
  
• Support in establishing social contacts and activities
  
• Developing social skills

To help young people weigh up the option of a rented home of their own versus continuing to live with parents a range of literature was developed to facilitate self -resolution.  This was developed through the Milton Keynes Youth Housing network which linked by the housing providers and third party agencies in the local area.

For those whose family circumstances have broken down mediation, thorough a third sector provider, is considered.  A single point of referral, via a third sector, is in place for those who can not return to home and may have other needs which require specialist support. 

For those in crisis needing emergency accommodation, to avoid the use of bed and breakfast or hostel accommodation a “night stop” service is being introduced.  The service enables access to a room in a family’s home for which the family offers somewhere to stay and support for up to 28 nights.