Supported Housing, the Starts at Home campaign and much more

Progress Housing Group recently wrote to around 150 MPs regarding the NHF Starts at Home campaign and the current government review of supported housing. Jacqui De-Rose explains in more detail. 

In particular we were keen to ensure that the voice of individuals was not lost in the policy debate around funding housing for people who need support. Therefore we included information such as Clare’s story and James’s story (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD) to demonstrate how we have a positive impact on people’s daily lives and we explained that at Progress around half of our tenants are in supported housing, many of them have learning difficulties.

We asked MPs to contact us for more information and to contact Lord Freud to support commitment to a long term funding model which recognises the value of this type of housing in our society.  So, what response did we receive?

To date 12 MPs have been in contact with us to express support and ask for further details. Some have written to Lord Freud and await a response.  Alongside this we have supported the launch of Learning Disability England (LDE), born out of the Housing and Support Alliance, to encourage individual tenants to have a voice in the political arena. LDE has been created to bring together people with learning disabilities, families and organisations to create a united and powerful voice to influence policy making. We are urging housing associations to get on board and promote this to their tenants and become members of LDE themselves. At Progress we have agreed to support individual tenants with the cost of membership and therefore assist with providing a voice for people with learning disabilities.

We believe we have a duty to champion the rights of people in and needing supported housing. This is one way in which we are trying to do that. We hope we will hear from the Government on the future funding of supported housing in the Autumn. Any influence we can each have in our local area to promote a long term sensible funding model for people who need support will be an investment for a better society.

Many of you will already be involved in this campaign, and if you can do anything more to raise these issues, we would urge you to do so.

Jacqui De-Rose
Progress Housing Group

August 2016