Main Points from Paul Anderson and Alex Kennedy S Presentation

PLUS Project Mayoral Election Forum – 25th November 2015 – Meeting Notes

List of Attendees

First Last Name Organisation Name Catherine 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

Antoinett Hoffland Shelter e 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.

 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:

 Labour – Sadiq Khan  Conservative – Zac Goldsmith  Green Party – Sian Berry  Liberal Democrat – Caroline Pidgeon  UKIP – Peter Whittle

Responsibilities of the Mayor

 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.

 2008 campaign commitment to end rough sleeping in London

 homelessness organisations combined forces to lobby the Mayoral candidates

It makes sense to tackle rough sleeping at a pan-London level:

 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:

 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:

 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:

 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)

 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.  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.

 Other points mentioned as priority were numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 with a suggestion that points 3 and 4 could be combined.

 The group also felt it important that prevention work involves families as well as single people.

 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.

 Also important to include tenancy sustainment – important to keep people off the streets.

 If you would like to be involved in the campaign email [email protected]

Your Vote Matters

 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.

 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.  Social housing sector has been harder to engage.

 The project so far has achieved 1300 new voter registrations.

 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.

 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.

 Up coming elections include the London Mayoral elections and Police and Crime Commissioners in May 2016.

 If any agency would like a project pack, email [email protected]

Project Updates

 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.

 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.

 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).

 Evolve Housing and Support – new work and learning project being rolled out across all projects. Crisis is running some workshops in Croydon.

 Providence Row – Looking to source more accommodation for women and strengthen links.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 Salvation Army – looking to remodel what services are provided.

 GLA – rough sleeping services to be commissioned from April 2016 are due to be announced shortly.

 Homeless Link – spotlight on autism and learning disability 16th December. Email [email protected] 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 [email protected]