St Mungos

Influencing
Strategy
2015-2018

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 St Mungos Influencing Strategy 2015-2018

Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................3
Definition of terms used in this strategy............................................................................................5
Our theory of change............................................................................................................................6
Our influencing approach.....................................................................................................................7
Context..................................................................................................................................................10
Responding when someone first becomes homeless...................................................................13
Supporting the first steps to recovery..............................................................................................14
Improving the health and wellbeing of people who are homeless..............................................15
Working towards financial stability...................................................................................................16
Improving housing and support for people moving on from homelessness..............................17

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Introduction

St Mungos organisational strategy recognises the importance of influencing national and local government
in order to achieve our ambition to reverse the increase in rough sleeping in England and to halve the
number of people sleeping rough in the areas we work by 2021.

Our fourth strategic aim in the organisational strategy is to influence national and local government to
implement new rough sleeping strategies. We will seek to ensure the government and local councils
make rough sleeping a political priority, establishing strategies that take a systematic approach and
dedicating the necessary resources.

Our influencing strategy sets out further detail on how we will achieve this. We will work to shape policy and
legislation which has the biggest impact on our clients people who are already experiencing, or are at
serious risk of homelessness and rough sleeping. And by doing so, we will focus specifically on policy
change that would help end the devastating cycle of repeat homelessness, ensuring support is available to
people with the most complex problems so they can rebuild their lives away from the street for good.

Our influencing strategy focuses on five areas, each with its own influencing objectives:

Responding when someone first becomes homeless (see page 13 for details)

We will work to ensure that if anyone has to sleep in an unsafe place, their situation is swiftly understood
and they are supported to access sustainable solutions to end their homelessness.

To achieve this, we will call for:

A new national strategy to end rough sleeping

Improvements to the homelessness legislation to include a new universal prevention and relief duty

An increase in the number of local areas with a strong commitment and strategy to end rough sleeping

Supporting the first steps to recovery (see page 14 for details)

We will work to ensure that homeless people who need support to live independently have the right housing
and related support at the right time to make a recovery.

To achieve this, we will call for:

A full exemption for supported housing from the rent reduction and Local Housing Allowance cap in the
social sector

A cross government plan and investment to protect the long term future of supported housing

Improving the health and wellbeing of people who are homeless (see page 15 for details)

We will work to ensure that homeless people have the opportunities and support they need to improve and
sustain their health and wellbeing.

To achieve this, we will call for:

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Investment in specialist homelessness mental health support

An increase in the number of local areas with a strong commitment and activity to improve homeless health

Working towards financial stability (see page 16 for details)

We will work to ensure that a higher proportion of people who are homeless become financially stable, that
they have enough money to cover their basic living costs including in time of crisis, and have the
opportunities and support to find and keep a job.

To achieve, this we will call for:

Employment support and adult learning services that recognise and respond to people with multiple and
complex needs, specifically we will seek early access to the Work and Health programme for people who
are homeless

A welfare system, including rules on benefit conditionality, which recognise and respond to people with
multiple and complex needs, specifically we will seek an extension of the benefit sanction easement rules
to all people who are homeless

Improving housing and support for people moving on from homelessness (see page 17 for details)

We will work to ensure that people who have been homeless can move on to a home that is affordable,
safe, comfortable and stable and can manage any problems that put their home at risk with support if they
need it.

To achieve this, we will call for:

An increase in genuinely affordable rented housing available from social landlords and social lettings
agencies

An increase in tenancy support for people who have been homeless

A new resettlement strategy from the Mayor of London

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Definition of terms used in this strategy

There are many different ways to describe the process of influencing policy change. Advocacy for some is
called campaigning; lobbying called influencing and so on. St Mungos uses the following terms and
definitions to describe the most common ways we seek to achieve change.

Influencing: work to bring about the change we seek in government policy and legislation to help achieve
our organisational mission. This work comprises of the methods described below.

Research: searching for and gathering information to learn more about a particular issue or area of
concern in order to develop new ideas and recommendations.

Policy: includes monitoring government policy, data gathering and analysis, research and consultation with
clients, staff and colleagues in the sector in order to develop detailed positions on particular issues, and
robust evidence based policy recommendations.

Public affairs: seeking opportunities to communicate our policy recommendations by networking and
building relationships with policy makers and organising meetings, events and parliamentary activities to
build profile and credibility among key political audiences.

Lobbying: engaging directly with key decision makers, such as politicians and civil servants, who have the
power to change government policy.

Campaigning: activities that raise public awareness and mobilise public support for our policy positions in
order to bring pressure to bear on key decision makers, such as petition signing, letter writing, mass
lobbies/marches, stunts and events.

Media: securing media coverage to raise the profile and awareness of our policy recommendations among
target audiences and the wider public.

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Our influencing approach

Theory of Change model

We have used The Theory of Change* planning tool to develop our influencing strategy. Theory of Change
is an approach to planning that is particularly useful for policy and campaigning strategies. The basis of the
model involves understanding the problem and then determining the impact needed to resolve that problem
while describing what would need to happen to arrive at that point.

The model enables us to put political and practice change at the heart of our influencing work. At the start
of all our planning we look at who and what we wanted to influence and why. The model ensures that we
always look at the impact we want together with our power analysis, then linking it to the context we are
working in and our understanding of how change is likely to happen. It allows us to pick from our influencing
toolbox the best way to influence the change we want. Campaigning is one such tool, but by no means
always useful or necessary in the context of the change we are looking for.

Being relevant

Given our external context is constantly changing [see Context section for details] we know we must tread
a delicate path in a shifting environment. We know we must be accurate in reading changes as they
happen, and agile enough for our influencing objectives and our campaigns work to stay relevant. We want
to ensure that our adaptability and agility does not compromise our objectives, our focus and our vision.

Clients at the centre

St Mungos ability to influence policy comes from our experience as a large and longstanding service
provider, the evidence we can gather and the lived experience of our clients.

It is essential that we bring the voices of our clients to the forefront of our influencing activity, and that we
ensure all our messaging is clearly and convincingly evidence based. Our clients are often our best
ambassadors and communicators and we aim to support their involvement in our work sensitively and
proactively. We will strive to ensure that clients from all sections of the organisation contribute to our
influencing work.
By drawing on our frontline experience, we will also be mindful of the diversity among people who
experience homelessness. We will consider the different ways that various groups experience certain
issues. For example, we know that women who are homeless are more likely to be affected by certain
experiences linked to complex trauma including domestic and sexual violence and exploitation. We know
that LGBT young people are more likely to find themselves homeless, than their non-LGBT peers.1 We will
seek to ensure these different experiences are recognised in policy and practice responses to
homelessness.

Our recommendations for improving policy and practice responses for people with multiple and complex
needs will also cut across every work stream in this strategy. The vast majority of our clients have at least
one support need in addition to their homelessness. Poor physical and mental health, problematic
substance use, unemployment and low educational attainment are all common among people who are
homeless. There is clear evidence that treating these needs in isolation hinders an individuals sustained
recovery from homelessness and this cannot continue.

Campaigning with the public

1TheAlbertKennedyTrust(2015)LGBTYouthHomelessness:AUKnationalscopingofcause,prevalence,responseand
outcome
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With our desire to secure changes in policy and practice, our influencing work aims to improve the lives of
our clients and the wider homeless population. The organisation also seeks to facilitate and enable others
(our staff, clients and supporters) to question, challenge and influence how policies are made and
implemented. Therefore our campaigning purpose must be about galvanising much needed support for
specific issues that need sector and/or policy transformation.

Campaigning is often directly supported by media work which helps raise public awareness of these issues,
with a view to changing public attitudes and/or behaviour and encouraging support for our influencing
actions. Campaigning activities will encourage supporters to, for example: sign petitions, write letters to
newspapers and decision makers, join mass lobbying opportunities, meet and lobby their MPs, to attend
photo stunts and more.

It is worth emphasising that the influencing objectives of our campaigning work will be front and centre of
everything we do, which in turn relate to the achievement of our overall ambition to reverse the rise in rough
sleeping across the country and, in the areas where we work, to at least halve the number of people who
sleep rough.

How we will communicate to influence

With our public campaigning we cant skirt around the difficult issues. We will be honest about our
experience and the solutions we propose, emphasising that we cant tackle these challenges alone and
therefore encourage others to join us. Through our collaborative style and tone we will work towards real
solutions. We will aim to highlight wrongs and help relevant decision makers and agencies to put them
right. We aim to be a critical friend to government, sharing our knowledge and expertise and working with
politicians and officials to design and implement policies and approaches that work. We will make sure
when we communicate our influencing/campaigning messages we present the issues as homeless people,
and our clients in particular, experience them. We will tell stories that reflect their real experiences.

Over the next three years we will seek to work even more effectively to influence relevant media which
can be key to effective campaigning and in turn our influencing agenda. We will work closely with the media
team and communications staff so that we can comment on stories that are vehicles for our messaging,
ensuring that our communications colleagues are involved earlier and integrally in our campaign planning
to ensure the stories we tell are compelling and presented in a visually arresting way.

We will provide regular and timely online updates for supporters, with a clear and current profile on our
website which is a major tool for attracting and communicating with campaigners and for informing other
interested parties on the issues.

We will use social media tools to enhance our influencing and campaigning profile such as Twitter,
Facebook and YouTube. We will seek to improve our digital campaigning so that we are at the forefront of
social communication development and use it effectively to achieve our desired change.

We will ensure that internal communications encourage staff, clients and volunteers to participate in the
campaign and we will measure their participation.

We will communicate the opportunities that campaigns can offer for all stakeholders, including
commissioners of services via existing and new communication opportunities managed by the
communications teams.

Influencing with others

We will extend our reach and influence by identifying and working with particular organisations who are well
placed to help us achieve our objectives ensuring that our objectives and our identity is evident in coalition

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working. We will play our full part as members of relevant national and international bodies such as
Homeless Link, the National Housing Federation and FEANTSA.

We will identify where our influencing and campaigning objectives may be best enhanced by a joint
campaign for example and proactively seek partnerships where appropriate. We will consider any requests
to support other organisations campaigning activity within the context of our own influencing objectives and
resources.

We remain sensitive to our relationships with key partners and our lobbying style is one based on the
benefits of working in partnership to reflect this. As a service provider we manage our important
relationships carefully. If we need to be critical of certain local authorities (often our funders) then we also
need to be balanced and fair, and to understand the problems they face. This may mean briefing them
ahead of a launch of any activity or new public message.

Secondary campaigning objectives

Taking part in our campaigns is one of a number of ways that we can encourage and enable members of
the public who are concerned about homelessness to work for change underlying our mission to build
relationships with communities and the wider public.

We seek to work with colleagues across the fundraising departments to develop campaigning activities and
communications as a core part of our supporter communication in order to strengthen and mobilize our
supporters understanding of the need and their capacity to influence decision makers at the highest level.

Where possible we will strive to integrate fundraising and campaigner journeys so that supporters can
choose to support St Mungo's in a way that suits them and builds our donor and campaigner base and in
turn helps to achieve our organisational vision.

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Context

The context in which this strategy has been developed is one of decreasing public spending, tighter access
to welfare support and increased homelessness. Opportunities may be provided by growing government
interest in complex needs, protected health spending and increasing attention on the need to improve
current homelessness legislation.

The political context

May 2015 saw the election of the first majority Conservative government for 18 years. Flagship policies for
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the new government include a referendum on Britains membership of the EU, cutting billions more from
spending on welfare and running a budget surplus. Welfare reform continues at pace, including a four year
freeze on Local Housing Allowance and other working age benefits, a reduction in the household benefit
cap, cuts to Employment and Support Allowance, the removal of automatic entitlement to housing benefit
for 18-21 year olds and a cap on housing benefit in the social sector at the private sector rate.

A new Mayor of London will be elected in May 2016. The Mayor of London is able to set plans and policies
covering key issues of housing, planning, regeneration, economic development and health inequalities.
Therefore, decisions made by the Mayor can have a significant impact on St Mungos ability to support
people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in London. The election has provided an opportunity
to try and ensure the next Mayor continues to invest mayoral resources in homelessness and rough
sleeping services, and that this investment matches the scale and complexity of the problem.

The financial context

In 2013/14 almost 90% of St Mungos and Broadways combined income came from government funding,
mainly in the form of local authority supporting people grants and housing benefit. There is little doubt that
both these funding streams will continue to be squeezed in the coming years.

The government has announced two separate measures designed to reduce the housing benefit bill. The
first is a 1% reduction every year for four years in social housing rents and the second is a cap on housing
benefit in the social sector at the private sector Local Housing Allowance rate. Following intensive lobbying
by St Mungos and others in the sector, supported housing has been exempted from these measures until
April 2017.

The Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Communities and Local Government are
leading a joint review of supported housing brought about by the need to understand what future funding
looks like under Universal Credit. The review will also be used to support further decisions on protections
for supported housing against the rent cuts and housing benefit caps in the long term.

By 2019/20 the government plans to save 12 billion in total from welfare spending and a further 20 billion
from government departmental budgets. Local authorities will face further significant budget cuts. Some
may look to draw more on protected National Health Service budgets to fund services for single homeless
people.

Under the last government there was a move away from commissioning which paid service providers for
processes and towards payment by results. This trend looks set to continue under the current government,
as does the increased use of social investment to fund services for the long term unemployed, people who
are homeless and people with mental health problems.

The housing crisis

Housing was a high priority for all parties in the run up to the election and the housing crisis continues to
keep it high on the governments agenda. The Conservatives tradition of supporting home ownership as
the tenure of choice continues, with a raft of measures to help people to buy a home already announced.

The government and the National Housing Federation have agreed a voluntary deal to extend Right to Buy
levels of discount to housing association tenants. The government will require local authorities to dispose of
high-value council houses to help fund the scheme. The Right to Buy discount is likely to be targeted at
general needs social housing and only tenants who can access mortgage or other finance to purchase the
property at the discounted price will be able to take advantage.

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The reduction in social housing rents, the sale of council housing and the extension of Right to Buy are
likely to result in a further net loss of social housing, making it even harder to support our clients to move on
from our specialist housing services.

Changing profile of homelessness

The UK, in common with most European countries2, has seen significant increases in homelessness in
recent years. Since 2010, official estimates of the number of people sleeping rough across England have
increased year on year, with the 2015 total more than double the 2010 figure.

It is likely that with increasingly restricted access to benefits and services for migrants, the number of
people from outside the UK sleeping rough in London and across the country will increase. This may
become an increasingly political issue with the referendum on EU membership scheduled for June 2016.

Plans to remove young peoples automatic entitlement to the housing element of Universal Credit from April
2017 could also lead to an increase in youth homelessness. Although a number of exemptions are likely to
be put in place to protect housing support for vulnerable young people.

Two Supreme Court rulings in May 2015 could encourage local authorities to accept more people as
homeless and in priority need and therefore entitled to support with accommodation. The government has
also committed to consider legislative options to reduce homelessness and is engaged in discussions with
the sector about making improvements to the homelessness legislation. St Mungos will be working with
Crisis and others to call for a new universal homelessness prevention and relief duty to improve the
assistance offered to people threatened with homelessness, regardless of priority need criteria.

The rise in homelessness and rough sleeping, as well as increasing pressure from the sector and a new
select committee inquiry have focused government attention on the issue. The 2016 Budget included
investment worth 115 million for move on accommodation, a fund to prevent and reduce rough sleeping
and funding for a new social impact bond to tackle entrenched rough sleeping.

Health and social care

In the context of increased demand and persistent questions about health and social care funding, the
government has committed to increase spending on the NHS by 8 billion a year. This is the minimum
required on top of demanding efficiency savings according to the NHS Five Year Forward View. These
funds are also unlikely to cover new government proposals to extend seven day access to patients across
the NHS.

There is further to go in pursuit of parity of esteem for mental health and physical health. In early 2016, the
government accepted the recommendations of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, including an
additional investment of 1 billion in mental health by 2020/21.

Although the 2014 Care Act could lead to an increase in the number of people eligible for social care, the
Local Government Association reports that the adult social care system is now under extreme pressure
and facing financial crisis.3 The government has also promised the integration of health and social care
systems will continue.

Complex needs

For people facing multiple and complex needs, better coordination of health, social care, housing and other
2 http://www.feantsaresearch.org/spip.php?article353&lang=en
3 LGA (2014) Adult social care funding: State of the nation report
http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/5854661/Adult+social+care+funding+2014+state+of+the+nation+report/e32866fa-d512-4e77-9961-
8861d2d93238
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services must be achieved. Complex needs is usually understood as a combination of poor health,
homelessness, offending, substance use and possibly other issues. It is an area that has received more
attention from policy makers in recent years and the current government is considering an extension of the
Troubled Families programme to individuals with multiple and complex needs.

The DWP is also working on a new Life Chances Strategy backed by the Prime Minister, which is likely to
include interventions to help people with mental health and addiction problems.

Responding when someone first becomes homeless

We will work to ensure that if anyone has to sleep in an unsafe place, their situation is swiftly
understood and they are supported to access sustainable solutions to end their homelessness.

To achieve this, we believe there must be high quality outreach services working with people
sleeping rough right across the country. St Mungos is the largest provider of rough sleeping outreach
services in England. We have a track record of driving up the standard of services and spreading best
practice to assist people sleeping rough swiftly and effectively. We believe sleeping rough is dangerous and
no one should have to experience it. We will draw on our knowledge and experience to influence national
and local government policy on investment and standards in rough sleeping outreach services.

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In June 2011, the coalition government published a paper called Vision to end rough sleeping: No Second
Night Out nationwide, which made a commitment to ensure nobody had to spend a second night out on the
street. Five years on we will be calling for a new national strategy to end rough sleeping. Achieving our
five year ambition to halve rough sleeping in the areas where we work will also depend on local councils
making rough sleeping a political priority, establishing strategies that take a systematic approach and
dedicating the necessary resources. We will work to ensure the new Mayor of London continues the
provision of pan London services for people sleeping rough in the capital and adopts a leadership role to
tackle the problem. And we will be seeking to influence an increase in the number of local areas with a
strong commitment and strategy to end rough sleeping.

In London, CHAIN data reveals an increase in the number of rough sleepers from Eastern European
countries. We are concerned that with increasingly tight access to benefits, the number of migrant rough
sleepers in London and across the country will continue to increase significantly. Our role will be to explain
the picture carefully to decision makers at the national and EU level and to make recommendations for a
coordinated response that works for people with no recourse to public funds.

Secondly, we believe local authority housing options services must offer effective assessment,
advice and service coordination for everyone who presents as homeless. In 2013 St Mungos No
More research with recent rough sleepers identified several missed opportunities to help people keep a
roof over their heads, particularly when they had turned to their local authority for help. Recent research by
Crisis4 has given further weight to the evidence of poor responses to vulnerable people by local authority
housing options services. St Mungos is participating in an expert panel review of the legal duties owed to
single homeless people coordinated by Crisis. The expert panel will report in 2016 with recommended
changes to homelessness legislation. We will use the expert panels report and our own evidence of the
experiences of new rough sleepers to persuade government to improve the legislation by introducing a
new universal homelessness prevention and relief duty.

4Crisis(2014)TurnedAway.ThetreatmentofsinglehomelesspeoplebylocalauthorityhomelessnessservicesinEngland.
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Supporting the first steps to recovery

We will work to ensure that homeless people who need support to live independently
have the right housing and related support at the right time to make a recovery.

To achieve this, we will call for:

A full exemption for supported housing from the rent reduction and Local Housing Allowance
cap in the social sector

To achieve this we believe there must be continued government investment in

supported housing services for people who are homeless and vulnerable.

We are participating in the government review of supported accommodation, which has been
triggered by the need to determine how supported housing will be funded when housing
benefit is replaced by Universal Credit. Housing benefit is currently the primary means by
which supported housing residents fund their housing costs and so the review has been
made more urgent by planned cuts to rent and housing benefit payments in the social
housing sector.

There are many different models of accommodation and support designed to help people to
recover from homelessness and gain the skills and the confidence needed to live more
independently. We will do more work across the organisation to evidence what we mean by
the right housing and related support at the right time. This work will help us to make
recommendations for how supported housing should be funded in the future and make the
case for a cross government plan and investment to protect the long term future of
supported housing.

We must do more to build the economic case for investment in supported housing to
demonstrate the savings that can be made elsewhere by producing positive outcomes for
vulnerable people at risk of homelessness, offending and mental health crises. We will
provide information on funding trends and new funding mechanisms that have affected our
services finances and establish a clear view on the outcomes that supported housing
services should aim to achieve for people who are homeless and vulnerable.

The government is also considering a new programme of support for people with complex
needs. We will work with partners to help shape this programme which must bring services
in the criminal justice, homelessness, mental health and substance use sectors together to
stop people falling through the gaps. Any programme must be in addition to continued
investment in existing supported housing services.

The planned reduction in social housing rents and cap on housing benefit in the social sector
at the private sector Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate put the future of supported housing
at risk. Given the higher costs of housing management and maintenance, supported housing
services for homeless and vulnerable people are far less able to absorb this significant
reduction in their rental income. Following intensive lobbying by St Mungos and others in the
sector, supported housing has been exempted from these measures until April 2017. We will
continue to seek a full exception for supported housing to the rent reduction and the
LHA cap to ensure services are not forced to close.

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Improving the health and wellbeing of people who are homeless

We will work to ensure that people have the opportunities and support they need to
improve and sustain their health and wellbeing.

To achieve this, we believe the NHS and local authorities must measure, understand
and meet the health needs of homeless people in their local area.

People who are homeless have worse health than most, yet they find it harder to get help.
Despite this our research has shown that two thirds of local health needs assessments fail to
recognise the heath needs of single homeless people. We have been campaigning since
October 2014 to improve the poor health experienced by homeless people by calling on all
152 Health and Wellbeing Boards in England to sign our Charter for Homeless Health
to demonstrate their commitment to measuring, understanding and meeting the health needs
of homeless people in their local area.

The legacy of Homeless Health Matters should be better awareness of the links between
poor health and homelessness among local and national health leaders. This should be
visible in strategies, needs assessments, government papers, Parliamentary debates and
media coverage. We will continue to encourage Health and Wellbeing Boards to turn the
Charter commitments into real, long term impact and we will be seeking an increase in the
number of local areas with a strong commitment and activity to improve homeless
health.

Our campaign also aimed to persuade national government to make homeless health a
priority by developing a clear and coordinated strategy on homeless health across DH,
Public Health England and NHS England. Our influencing work will continue to prioritise a
reduction in the shocking health inequalities that currently exist between people who are
homeless and the general population.

Our recent investigation into mental health and rough sleeping found that that 4 in 10 people
who sleep rough have a mental health problem and that rough sleepers struggling with poor
mental health are more likely to be stuck on the streets for longer.

Specialist homelessness mental health services were established during the 1990s as part
of the Homeless and Mentally Ill Initiative, but have since been subject to major budget cuts
or have been lost entirely. Those that remain cover a smaller geographical area and have
reduced the scope of their activity by working with patients for shorter periods of time, and
raising the threshold for providing support. Specialist teams can coordinate and carry out
mental health assessments with people sleeping rough, on the street if necessary. They can
also provide treatment, including medication and talking therapies, to people who are
sleeping rough.

We have launched a campaign calling directly on the Prime Minister to stop the scandal of
people with mental health problems left sleeping rough and we will be making the case to
national government for investment in specialist homelessness mental health support.

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Working towards financial stability

Working towards financial stability

We will work to ensure that a higher proportion of people who are homeless become
financially stable, that they have enough money to cover their basic living costs
including in time of crisis, and have the opportunities and support to find and keep a
job.

To achieve, this we will call for:

To achieve this we believe people who have experienced homelessness must have the
opportunities and support to find and keep a sustainable job. This means employment
support and adult learning services must recognise and respond to people with
multiple and complex needs.

More than half of people who are homeless lack the basic literacy skills needed for everyday
life. We had some success with support to address this problem in the last parliament with
government funding for the STRIVE pre-employment pilot. This pilot is working well to
improve the basic maths, English, IT and employability skills of people who are homeless in
London. We will encourage the government to help us evidence the need for STRIVE, or a
similar programme, across the country and will try to secure funding for a national
homelessness basic skills audit.

The lack of a stable and settled home makes it extremely difficult to find and maintain
employment. Only eight per cent of our St Mungos residents are in work. Despite the
barriers they may face, most people who have experienced homelessness want to work.

We will work to influence government funded employment programmes so they better

support people with experience of homelessness into work. This means better initial
assessment of jobseekers' housing needs, housing support offered within employment
support programmes and conditionality and sanctions being better tailored to individual
circumstances. The development of the successor to the governments Work Programme
provides an opportunity for us to help ensure future employment support is designed in this
way, and we will seek early access to the new Work and Health programme for people
who are homeless.

We also believe people who have experienced homelessness must have enough
money to cover their basic living costs, including in time of crisis.

The governments plans to save 12 billion from reforms to the welfare system by 2019-20
create new challenges for people who need access to the state safety net while they recover
from homelessness and connected issues. We will prioritise working with government on key
aspects of welfare reform to ensure they do not increase the risk of repeat homelessness.
Instead we wish to see a welfare system that recognises and responds to people with
multiple and complex needs, specifically we will seek an extension of the benefit
sanction easement rules to all people who are homeless.

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Improving housing and support for people moving on from homelessness

We will work to ensure that people who have been homeless can move on to a home
that is affordable, safe, comfortable and stable and can manage any problems that
put their home at risk with support if they need it.

To achieve this we believe there must be more private and social rented housing
available to people on very low incomes, including in areas of the country where
housing costs are the highest.

Private rented sector (PRS) housing is now frequently the only option for people moving on
from homelessness accommodation services. In 2012/13, the PRS overtook the social
rented sector to become the second largest tenure in England after home ownership, and it
has grown further since. There is clear evidence that average weekly rents in the PRS are
even higher than in the social sector. In London, the problem is more severe with average
weekly rents in the PRS soaring above those outside London.

Our influencing work will draw on our experience of running a social lettings agency and
using social investment to increase the supply of PRS properties available to homeless
households. We will make recommendations for addressing the disparity between the Local
Housing Allowance rate and the rent achievable on the open market, which is causing the
supply of affordable PRS properties to dry up in certain parts of the country. We will consider
incentives for landlords to make their properties available to those who need them most, as
well as identifying incentives and opportunities for people to seek out lower cost housing
where they will be helped to establish roots in the local community.

In all, 28,240 new homes were completed by housing associations and local authorities in
2014-15 and both have clearly stated their ambitions to deliver more. We will work with these
partners to ensure social housing continues to serve people moving on from homelessness
and propose ways to achieve more.

We will bring all of these ideas together to encourage government to put in place measures
that will bring about an increase in genuinely affordable rented housing available from
social landlords and social lettings agencies.

We also believe there must be tenancy support available to people who have been
homeless. Homelessness doesnt end when someone moves out of a hostel or supported
housing with a key to their own place in hand. Moving into a new place can be a challenge
for anyone, but especially so for people who have experienced homelessness. Managing
budgeting, utilities, benefits, relationships and household maintenance can become too hard
to cope with.

Therefore, people with a history of homelessness often need support to build stability around
their tenancy and without help there is a good chance they will become homeless again. The
need has intensified with the reduction in local welfare assistance, which many previously
depended on to set up a new home with basic furnishings and goods. We will start a bigger
debate about what makes it possible for people with a history of homelessness to sustain a
home and recovery in the community. In London we want this to result in a strategic
approach to move on in a new resettlement strategy from the London Mayor.

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