CITY council tenants in Leicester who face homelessness because of problems with drug or alcohol use are receiving help from a new team of housing support workers.
The council’s housing and public health divisions have worked together to secure more than £230,000 from the Department of Health and Social Care to create the new service. The funding is part of the national drug strategy which aims to increase the number of people recovering from addiction and maintaining secure housing.
Funding will also be used to develop specialist support and accommodation for people with multiple complex issues who have lost their homes. This will be developed in the Zip building, recently purchased by the city council for conversion into council housing.
Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, deputy city mayor for housing said: “If people lose their homes because of addictions, they can find themselves in a spiral of homelessness, rough sleeping and other problems that are extremely hard to recover from.
“This new initiative – called Help Beyond Housing - sees specialist housing support workers working closely with the Turning Point substance use treatment service and other partners to identify tenants with the most urgent and complex needs, to offer them intensive support to maintain their tenancies.
“This could be life-changing support for some people, and also reduces the call on other services such as health, homelessness services and the police.”
The team is helping tenants to use local services for drug and alcohol misuse and to seek mental health support. It also provides advice on budgeting, dealing with rent arrears, and reducing anti-social behaviour.
The next stage of the project will be to provide an 11-bed trainer housing scheme for people who have been made homeless and have lived with substance misuse or other complex needs. This will be located in the Zip building recently purchased by the council. Placements will be offered for up to a year to single people who would benefit from the intensive one-to-one support the accommodation will provide.
Residents will be offered training to build their confidence and develop independent living skills before moving into their own tenancies.
The council also aims to offer opportunities to gain educational skills and employment training, to enable residents to get back into the workforce.