9 May 2007 - SUPPORTED LODGINGS Featured on BBC LOOK EAST
BBC Look East ran a special report on Stevenage Haven's Supported Lodgings Scheme on the Look East News this evening.
VIEW THE LOOK EAST PROGRAM BY CLICKING HERE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Tania Barradell
Supported Lodgings Worker
5 Ditchmore Lane, Stevenage, SG1 3LJ.
Tel: 01438 354884
Mobile: 07925 326288
Email: sl@stevenagehaven.org.uk
Stevenage Haven is seeking to further assist clients to achieve secure and settled lifestyles in the community by piloting a new form of supported housing. Stevenage Haven has just started an 18 month Supported Lodgings pilot project which will link local householders, who have a spare bedroom in their home, with homeless women and men living in Chris Foster House, Stevenage Haven?s emergency single homeless hostel, providing them with a stable home and freeing up their bed in the hostel for another homeless person. Currently residents stay longer at the hostel than is desirable because of the lack of suitable move on accommodation and if the pilot project proves successful resident stays at the hostel should be reduced due to the increased accommodation options.
Tania Barradell, Stevenage Haven's newly appointed Supported Lodgings worker is now promoting the scheme in and around Stevenage. Tania will be responsible for recruiting and vetting potential landlords and working closely with Stevenage Haven staff to identify suitable potential lodgers who wish to live in Supported Lodgings. Landlords and lodgers will be carefully matched and will be given plenty of time to get to know each other before entering into a supported lodgings agreement. Tania will provide support to both landlords and lodgers throughout the lodgings arrangement and this should enable lodgers to better adapt and settle into their new homes, build up good relationships with their landlord, and on a longer term basis enable them to pursue a stable, independent lifestyle with growing confidence.
Stevenage Haven is a registered homeless charity providing emergency shelter and support for single homeless people. Their emergency single homeless hostel, Chris Foster House, operates 24 hours a day all year round, providing shelter and support for 14 male and 4 female homeless clients aged 16 and above. They also provide supported move-on accommodation, in association with Stevenage Borough Council, Haven 2, for 4 clients. In addition to the Supported Lodgings pilot project, Stevenage Haven is also starting the 'Secure & Settled' project in May which will provide proactive floating support to ex-residents who have moved onto their own tenancies. Both these new projects have been funded by grants from charitable trusts and proceeds from the St Albans Sleepout 2006 event. Stevenage has a high level of single homelessness and only very limited provision for homeless people. Over the last three years Chris Foster House has had to turn away homeless women and men on over 500 separate occasions each year because the hostel was full.
Our thanks to a number of Charitable Trusts who awarded grants for this project including: the Mrs Smith & Mount Trust; the Batty Charitable Trust; Coutts Charitable Trust; Beatrice Laing Trust; Hilden Charitable Foundation; and Awards For All. We would also like to thank all of our supporters who slept out at St Albans Abbey in December 2006 and whose sponsorship monies were split between the Supported Lodgings and Secure and Settled Projects.
DOWNLOAD LEAFLET BELOW
Supported Lodgings Leaflet.pdf