Applying for Housing guidance notes

www.thenuehousing.co.uk How do I apply for a house? The Association operates an open housing list which means that anyone over the age of 16 years old can apply to us and be admitted to our housing list. Our Allocations Policy sets out how we allocate our vacant properties. A full version of the Policy is available on request or from our website, and a summary version can be found on page 6.

Here we set out how you can be considered for rehousing with us.

1. Housing List a) How do I apply to join the list? Firstly you will need to complete the accompanying Application Form. Once you have done this, you should submit it to any of our offices.

b) How is my application assessed? We carry out an assessment of your current circumstances and look at a range of criteria, including whether you are overcrowding your current home, whether you are living in insecure housing or whether you have any medical conditions which are being affected by where you are staying.

We aim to complete the assessment of your application within 15 days of receiving your completed form and we will write to you detailing the outcome of your application. Your provisional assessment letter will include the Priority Needs Group your application is in, the size of property for which you qualify, the type and area preference.

c) Offers of Rehousing: Normally vacant properties will be allocated to the applicant with the highest priority (appropriate to their needs and preferences).

Before being considered for an offer of rehousing, we will contact you to confirm the situation regarding your application and your priority for rehousing. We will carry out some checks and will either interview you at our office or visit you at home. In addition, reports will be requested from your current or previous landlord. If you owe more than one month’s rent, you will normally need to have a satisfactory repayment plan before you can be offered rehousing.

d) Local Lettings Plans: In addition to our Priority Group system, we operate Lettings Plans to ensure that we not only give reasonable preference to applicants in housing need, but also to assist us in achieving mixed and sustainable communities. Our Lettings Plans are reviewed once a year: full details of our current Lettings Plans are listed on Appendix One of our Allocations Policy and in our leaflet “Our Priority Groups and Lettings Plans Explained”.

e) Review of the Lists: Each year, you will be contacted by letter and asked to confirm whether you wish to stay on our list and to let us know if there are any changes to your circumstances.

If you do not return your review form within the 28 day deadline, we will contact you again to advise you that your application will be cancelled within seven days unless we hear back from you. If you contact us within four weeks of your application being cancelled, we can reinstate your application but if you contact us after that time, you will have to re-apply to us.

f) Change of Circumstances. If you change your address or if any of your household circumstances change, you must advise us as it could affect your application. If your address changes you will have to complete another application form and your application will be reassessed. page 2 ‘applying for housing application form’ g) Declaration: Both you and, if appropriate, the joint applicant need to sign the Declaration at the end of the form. By signing the Declaration, you are confirming that the information you have supplied is true and accurate and you are acknowledging that any misleading or withheld information may have consequences for your application and any future offer of rehousing. It also allows us to contact, where appropriate, other relevant agencies in relation to your rehousing application and any future offer of rehousing.

2. City Council Referrals We have an arrangement with whereby they are able to nominate for a percentage of properties which become available for letting during the year. These are for people who are homeless and who we will, wherever possible, assist in rehousing in one of our communities.

3. Special Lets We also receive requests from other agencies, such as Social Work Services, for help in rehousing people with particular needs. Again, wherever possible, we do our best to assist agencies in offering appropriate rehousing to people wishing to live in one of our communities.

4. Property Information Detailed information on the size and location of our housing is in our application form. Most of our properties are one and two bedroomed tenement flats. We have few larger properties and they seldom become empty and we have very few wheelchair user houses. Some of our houses have been designated for older people only, or for persons requiring support in order to maintain a tenancy with us. The map on page 5 details the areas in which we have housing, which includes:

a) General Needs Housing: Flats or houses which are suitable for people who do not require specially adapted housing or housing for a particular need. We own approximately 2500 properties across the communities where we operate.

b) Older People’s Housing: We have a small number of amenity flats in Bridgeton, Calton and Castlemilk. Some are fitted with a community alarm system, and they all have non-slip flooring and electric sockets at a level which are easy to reach.

c) We have 128 sheltered flats in Bridgeton and Calton. These flats have grab rails, special bathroom fittings, a community alarm system and the services of Housing Support staff. There is also a common room where regular social events are held and where tenants and local groups can meet.

To be considered for sheltered or amenity housing, you will normally be 60 years old or over and for our older people’s housing, you will normally be 50 years or over. If you are interested in sheltered housing, there is an additional assessment required to be undertaken by the Association’s staff to determine whether you would be eligible for this type of housing and support. A separate leaflet is available from any of our offices or from our website.

d) Furnished Housing: We have a small number of one-bedroom part- furnished flats in Saltmarket and fully furnished flats in Bridgeton and Calton. We can also discuss with you the option of supplying a furniture package if you need this to allow you to accept an offer of rehousing from us.

october 2011 page 3 Summary - Rental Properties Area Total Number Flat/House Type Number of Bed- Owned rooms

Baillieston 19 Houses and bungalows 2-3

Blackhill 123 Houses and flats 1-5

Tenement flats 1-3 Cottage flats 2 Bridgeton 1133 Houses 2-5 Bungalows 2-3 Tenement flats (with a lift) 1-2 Tenement flats 1-2 Calton 636 Houses 1-5 Bungalows 2-3 Wheelchair user flat 1-2 Castlemilk 159 Tenement flats 1-2 Houses 3-5 Cottage flats 1-2 280 Houses 2-5 Bungalows 1-3 Tenement flats 1-4 72 Houses 3

Summary - Shared Ownership/New Supply Shared Equity Properties Area Total Number Size () Type Owned Cottage flat 2 3 Blackhill Semi-detached 1 4 house 6 2 Tenement flat 32 3 Tenement flat Bridgeton 15 3 House 14 4 House

Calton 3 3 Tenement flat

3 Tenement flat 24 4 Tenement flat

Castlemilk 3 4 Terraced house

Semi-detached 4 3 house Cranhill 4 4 Semi-detached house 2 2 Tenement flat Dalmarnock 1 3 Tenement flat

TOTAL 111

page 4 ‘applying for housing application form’ Map showing the communities where we have housing to rent or buy

5. Housing for Sale The Association has shared ownership and/or new supply shared equity housing in Blackhill, Bridgeton, Castlemilk, Calton, Carmyle, Cranhill and Dalmarnock. Shared Ownership allows you to own a share of a property leaving the remaining share as a monthly rent. Shared Equity means you can initially purchase a share of between 50%-80% with the Scottish Government owning the remaining share which they will retain until such time as you are able to purchase your home. More information on this type of housing is available from our offices.

6. Mutual Exchanges We may be able to match your application with another applicant seeking to ‘swap’ homes with another tenant, who may be our tenant or a tenant of another Housing Association or Local Authority. A Mutual Exchange Register is kept at the reception desk which you can look at any time during office hours and additional information on ‘Homeswapper’ is available on our website or directly on www.HomeSwapper.co.uk

7. Equal Opportunities Monitoring You will see that on page 19 of the application form, we ask you to complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form. The information does not form part of your rehousing assessment and is removed from your application. We ask this information to ensure that we can show we are not discriminating against any particular groups.

8. Comments and Complaints We welcome comments, suggestions and complaints from our customers to help us develop our service. Information contact can be made with a member of staff from the Housing & Support Team - either by phone, in person, by letter or by email.

Formal complaints should normally be made in writing and will be dealt with by our Head of Housing. If your complaint remains unresolved, it will be considered by our Chief Executive, then representatives from our Management Committee. Thereafter complaints can be made to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. Further details are in our Customer Comments & Complaints leaflet available at our offices or from our website.

9. Data Protection and Storage of Information We will keep information you provide to us in a secure file and it will be treated in a confidential manner. We will only store information which is relevant to the assessment of your housing application.

october 2011 page 5 Summary of Allocations Policy

Access to the Housing List Anyone aged 16 or over may apply to be admitted to the waiting list by completing our Housing Application form.

Transfer Applicants: Applicants who are currently tenants of the Association must complete a Transfer Application form and include details of the permanent members of their household. In the case of joint tenants, both must sign the form.

Assessment of housing need and operation of the housing list Applicants will be assessed and registered with the Association and will be placed in one of the Priority Groups below:

Priority Group Housing Need Factor • Current property scheduled for demolition/clearance (where there is inter-agency agreement) • Severe harassment or domestic abuse Urgent Priority • Management Transfer • Special Cases approved by Committee (on an exceptional basis)

Referrals from Glasgow City Council in accordance with Sec- Homeless Priority tion 5 of the 2003 Homeless Persons Act

• Overcrowding by two or more bedrooms • Relationship breakdown • Health condition worsened by current property and re- High Priority housing would assist • Lacking essential amenities • Property in dangerous condition • Overcrowding by one bedroom • Mobility restricted by current property and rehousing would assist • No security of tenure Medium Priority • Living in a caravan or living in a hostel • Sharing amenities with non-family members • Underoccupying by one or more bedroom • Requiring to move to be near to give or receive support • Property in unsatisfactory condition

All other applicants whose housing need factors are not listed Standard Priority above

Applicants will be provisionally assessed based on their current housing circumstances and an applicant’s position within a Priority Group will be based on their date of registration (earliest registration will have the highest priority). This means that once an applicant is placed in a Priority Group no-one can move ahead of them within that Group.

Where an applicant has more than one of the Housing Need Factors listed on page 6, their highest priority need will determine into which Priority Group their application will be placed (eg. where an applicant is overcrowded by two bedrooms, shares amenities and has insecurity of tenure, they will be placed in the High Priority Group due to their overcrowding situation).

page 6 ‘applying for housing application form’ If an applicant notifies us of a change in circumstances, their application will be re- assessed and their application may be placed in a different Priority Group. Their position within this new group will be based on the date we confirm the re-assessment has been completed. Applicants on the housing list who have not provided the necessary supporting information to enable a full assessment of housing need may be bypassed during the allocation process until the information is received.

Following completion of our provisional assessment, all applicants will receive a letter confirming their reference number, position within a specific Priority Group and choice of areas, house types and size of accommodation to be allocated.

Allocation of Vacant Accommodation

Lettings Plans and allocation of available properties Normally our housing officers will offer the vacant accommodation to the applicant with the highest priority (appropriate to their needs and choice).

In addition to the Priority Group system however, we will also operate Lettings Plans to ensure that we not only give reasonable preference to those in greatest housing need but also ensure that we achieve mixed and sustainable communities. This might mean that for any allocation the successful applicant may be a household with a lesser priority from a specific targeted group. For example, an area with low numbers of working households may have an agreed target set to ensure that a proporton of all lets in that area are made to working households irrespective of their priority.

Where a let is to be made from a specific targeted group it will normally be made to an applicant in the highest Priority Group with the earliest date of registration.

The group to be allocated the accommodation will be decided and recorded before the selection process starts (taking into account current performance against Lettings Plan targets).

Our Housing Management Sub-Committee, Registered Tenants Organisations and those Area Associations with a Minute of Agreement with Thenue, will review our Lettings Plans annually. The Lettings Plans may vary in different communities (see Appendix One of our full Allocations Policy for confirmation of our current Lettings Plans) or our leaflet “Our Priority Groups and Lettings Plans Explained”.

The Association also aims to assist in rebuilding and sustaining comunities by carrying out sensitive allocations. Wherever possible, in areas and blocks of housing, we aim to achieve a balance of household compositions, a balance of ages, an avoidance of a clash of lifestyles and a range of life and employment experiences.

Choice Applicants can specify their preferences for a choice of areas and dwelling types. The size of property offered however, will normally be based on the number of bedspaces required for that household. It should be noted that on average we are only able to house 15% of Housing List applicants in any given year due to the level of demand for our properties.

A copy of our full Allocations Policy is available on request from any of our offices or is available to download from our website.

october 2011 page 7 83 Green Street, Calton, Glasgow, G40 2TG Tel: 0141 550 3581 [email protected] 2 Main Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow, G40 1HA Tel: 0141 554 5245 [email protected] 49 Blaeloch Drive, Castlemilk, Glasgow, G45 9QJ Tel: 0141 634 7000 [email protected] 14 Place, Cranhill, Glasgow, G33 3HA Tel: 0141 774 3030 [email protected] Thenue is recognised as a Scottish Charity (No SC032782) www.thenuehousing.co.uk

We are committed to ensuring access to information is available to all equalities and disadvantages groups. Our publications are available in large print, Braille and community languages on request.