Tackling homelessness

Everyone has the right to a safe place to call home, somewhere they can build their lives and have bright futures. Rough sleeper numbers in our area and across the country have increased over the last decade and as one of the biggest social landlords in the south of England, we know we have a significant role to play in helping to address this. However, the solution isn’t as simple as providing these people with a home, most rough sleepers have complex needs so 360 support services are required to ensure they sustain a permanent home. We’re working in partnership with organisations and local authorities in homeless reduction initiatives that provide tailored interventions and support measures.

Take a look at some of the projects we’re supporting (or have supported) below.

Our partnership with Two Saints

In May 2019, we agreed a partnership with homeless support charity, Two Saints, to tackle rising homelessness and create better wellbeing outcomes for people across the south.

Two Saints offer support to people who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, by offering well-rounded services to help them get back on their feet.

Since our partnership was formed, we’ve entered into a number of lease agreements with Two Saints on its supported accommodation portfolio so they can continue their work, worked together to assist local authorities ‘Everybody In’ campaign to get rough sleepers off the street during the pandemic, and through VIVID Plus have agreed to support the charity’s Housing First service. Housing first prioritises access to housing as quickly as possible and eligibility for housing is not contingent on any conditions but a willingness to maintain a tenancy.

You can read more about our partnership below:

News article: Our partnership success with Two Saints

News article: Property transformed in a week to protect homeless from coronavirus

Press release: Rough sleepers in Basingstoke to be provided long-term accommodation by housing association

Outcome Home

We started a partnership with Outcome Home in June 2021 to support and invest over £26,000 in its psychologically informed peer-to-peer mentoring project reach more people in need across Hampshire.

OutcomeHome enables individuals who have recently experienced homelessness to have access to the individual support they need, to help re-build their lives and find a path that helps them to succeed, to help promote social inclusion within the community.

OutcomeHome provides psychological services, both directly and indirectly to people who are homeless who suffer mental health needs and health and social exclusion. The aim of the social enterprise is to provide evidence based psychological interventions to people who are homeless and to provide training and support to outreach workers and peer mentors, to better enable them to engage those who are most marginalised from services in the process of change, who are often dealing with highly complex experiences.

One of our customers who had support from Outcome Home is Tony* who had struggled with alcohol addiction for many years. Thanks to this programme, Tony managed to go sober, and his life turned around for the better. He was able to see his daughter once or twice a week, when previously he had no contact, started going to the gym to improve physical fitness and well-being and also applied for college course. Tony told one of our Neighbourhood Officers that ‘he was a completely different person’.

*name changed for privacy