Three boroughs, three different solutions to managing ex-offenders in the community. The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) finds out how Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Bolton are using housing to help rebuild lives.
If you are addicted to heroin and have spent most of your time in and out of prison, it's not easy to turn your life around. At 40, ‘Peter' has a string of convictions for burglary and theft that has funded his 20-year drug habit. Along the way he has lost his family, his health and his home.
Yet incredibly Peter has managed to transform his life with the help of a London resettlement team. For the first time in decades, he's managed to stay off drugs and has not committed a crime for a year. He now has somewhere to live and is signed up with a GP's surgery. Peter is also in a training scheme so that he can eventually get a job.
The dramatic turnaround started in prison. Following a drug detox programme, he was referred to the Substance Misuse and Offender Resettlement Team in the London Borough of Greenwich. This multi-disciplinary team assessed Peter's needs and drew up a plan for his release.
The biggest issue for him was finding safe and secure accommodation. Past prison releases had left Peter homeless. He'd often ended up sleeping on friend's sofas - unfortunately they too had a crack and heroin addiction.
Debra Potter is the Manager of the Substance Misuse team. This is a partnership between Greenwich Council, the probation service and the drug intervention programme. She has witnessed the difference in Peter. She says:
"His whole outlook has improved and he now feels for the first time in decades that he actually has a future. Finding him suitable private sector accommodation was critical to this. When you are living with other addicts it's very easy to slip back into your old ways. Without a stable base you get back into crime to pay for your drug habit and end up in prison again. It's a vicious circle that is very difficult to break."
Drug dependency
The team has dedicated housing workers who specialise in drug dependency issues as well as the criminal justice system. They offer housing support to vulnerable people who have a drugs problem - particularly prisoners and ex-offenders.
The scheme works with a number of prisons to identify inmates from Greenwich who will need support on their release. While the team specialise in housing issues, they also offer practical support to clients. This ranges from helping them claim benefits to accessing medical treatment.
Greenwich also runs a monthly housing surgery for Belmarsh Prison, which is located in the borough. This involves sending in housing experts to offer advice and carry out assessments for prisoners who come from the area.
In addition, Greenwich works with offenders who are council tenants to advise them how to avoid building up rent arrears while in prison. In some circumstances they may even be able to hold on to their tenancy if they have a short sentence.
Just over the river, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets has also adopted some innovative ways of working with ex-offenders on housing need. Paul Rickard is the Resettlement Development Officer at the council. Tower Hamlets has recently been awarded Beacon status for reducing re-offending. Rickard says:
"Finding suitable accommodation is absolutely critical to rehabilitating offenders. The government's Social Exclusion Unit found that stable accommodation can reduce re-offending by up to 20 per cent. Our own figures suggest that around half the people leaving prison have some form of housing need.
"We are looking to provide a holistic service for ex-offenders. Once they have access to suitable accommodation it is much easier for them to claim benefits, take part in training and access medical help."
The council is currently in the process of consulting on its homelessness strategy. This includes a section focusing on issues for ex-offenders. The strategy highlights the work the borough is carrying out with high-risk and prolific offenders. But it also stresses the need to target prisoners who do not fit into these categories but still have complex needs.
Bespoke housing solutions
One new initiative is the Housing Options Support Team (HOST). HOST is specifically aimed at single homeless people. Rickard explains:
"This group of people may not meet the statutory requirements of vulnerability that makes them a housing priority, but that doesn't mean they are not vulnerable. Ex-offenders often have very complex needs and require bespoke housing solutions."
The team will act as the central point for accessing hostel accommodation by agencies working with single homeless people. They will allocate places based on an assessment of the needs of an individual.
Rickard says:
"Accessing the hostel accommodation in the borough used to depend very much on the individual contacts the agency had. It was a time-consuming process and led to a very uneven experience."
Rickard believes this will increase the number of hostel places available to ex-offenders. Currently, it is estimated that fewer than 20 per cent of them are used by this group. To ensure that HOST understands the needs of offenders well, Tower Hamlets is about to recruit a criminal justice specialist to join the team.
Social housing
Bolton Council may be 200 miles away but it faces similar issues to London councils in managing ex-offenders in the community. Jon Powell is the Homeless Welfare Manager at Bolton. He says:
"Ex-offenders are not a homogenous group. There have committed different types of crimes and they present different types of risk. Accommodation is key to minimising the risk to some of them but not all. Our homelessness and housing strategy is closely linked to offender management."
Social housing for single people in the borough is at a premium. For every property that comes up there are at least 100 people who express an interest. Powell says:
"When you are looking at the housing needs of ex-offenders you are constantly weighing up the risk of re-offending and their vulnerability. We have a finite resource, which has to be carefully targeted to get the most out of it.
"We also have to be very aware that for every flat that comes available, there is a long list of working, law-abiding citizens who also have housing needs. They too need a bite of the cherry and a balance needs to be struck."
Targeting resources
One scheme they have introduced in the borough is working with a group of offenders who would not normally be considered a priority for social housing. Powel explains:
"There are a high volume of criminals who have a lengthy history of offending and are regularly in and out of prison for short spells. We wanted to target our resources to a number of them who are homeless to see if we could reduce their re-offending."
The council set up Offender Accommodation Resettlement and Support (OARS). This involved the local charity Urban Outreach, which works with homeless client groups. Initially the project works closely with prison staff to identify suitable offenders, and then carries out a detailed assessment of their needs.
On release, the project arranges temporary accommodation to help the ex-offenders establish themselves back in the community. For example, the council has leased two flats from a private landlord to use on the project. If this first stage is successful, the OARS team will then look to help the ex-offender find permanent accommodation, for example, in social housing in the borough.
Powell says:
"We can't accommodate all offenders coming out of prison with no fixed abode. We simply don't have the resources although they will be given advice and support through the borough's Street Life project. For those who are ready and able to make a change to their lifestyle, then the OARS project does seem to be making a difference.
"The last year has gone very well and we are looking to expand it from around 20 offenders to up to 40 offenders. However, there will always be a limit to how many we can help as we still need to balance those who have been on the waiting list a long time with vulnerable individuals who need to be prioritised."
The experience of all three councils shows that housing is key to reducing re-offending. According to Tower Hamlets, a newly released prisoner is two-and-a-half times more likely to re-offend if they are homeless, compared with someone who has a home.
Back in Greenwich, Peter is one person behind such statistics. His story shows just how stable and secure accommodation can transform the life of an individual and have a significant impact on a community. Peter's real name has not been used.
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This article was written by Nicolette Fox for the IDeA and published on 7 May 2008.