Housing First: spotlight on Fife

Fife Council lead officer for Housing Access and Advice John Ashford took time out to come to a Connect event in Stirling earlier this year, where he shared the local authority’s experiences of running Housing First. In this blog John again provides an expert view on the strategies that are working well in the area, and the challenges.

Fife has 89 Housing First cases, with 73 people in tenancies and 16 who are not ready for their tenancy or are waiting for a property. They have gone through the referral and assessment process before signing up.

Support is provided when a person is in temporary accommodation if the service user has not been allocated a permanent tenancy – or wherever they are residing (if sofa surfing etc) – this is a good opportunity to build a relationship.

We upscaled Housing First in March 2023 and now have four organisations providing support – Rock Trust for Youth, Bethany Christian Trust, Fife Women’s Aid and Turning Point Scotland. When the upscaling commenced, there were 29 Housing First tenancies – in just over 18 months we have increased to 73 Housing First tenancies and 16 awaiting the allocation of a tenancy.

One of our greatest achievements is the allocations process. This involves Housing Options discussions with case managers, providers and allocating officers in different areas.

We will identify two or three voids matching what tenant is looking for. This is not always possible due to housing demand but will look to identify at least one property that meets the preferences the customer has confirmed.

We encouraged the allocations officers to understand that we offer people a choice of home because that’s more likely to result in a successful tenancy. However, we do also attempt to manage the expectations that it is not always possible to provide multiple options on properties due to housing demand.

With any person experiencing homelessness we try to balance the preferences of the homeless customer against stock turnover, demand and number. But it also needs to be a realistic conversation.

People in Fife are more likely to be housed in a bigger town with more turnover of stock. There are challenges in the more rural areas – for example a small village might not have good transport links or a chemist. Tenants need to have support provision in those areas too.

Making sure tenants have access to other services can be a challenge for us and for the tenant. Operationally, we have great relationships with the support providers. We have a steering Group for higher end strategy and an operational Group. But once you step out of those groups it becomes harder to get buy-in. People tend to only come to those groups if an issue is raised about a tenant.  

If I could change one thing, I would go to other local authority services and say ‘this is how much you will save and reduce returns into your service through Housing First. This is how we can stave off crisis points for people accessing those services’.

I would love to see Housing First models for care leavers or prison leavers – programmes for different groups. At the moment, in Fife, this is not the case but I would like to see this opened out to give opportunity to more groups that require the support given in Housing First to have access to this.

Webinar launches Scotland’s new national Housing First ‘Check Up’

An online event for local authorities and partners on Thursday 25 November will set out plans for a new ‘Check Up’ process that will support the rollout of Housing First in Scotland. Activity will be co-ordinated by a nationwide policy and practice network supported by a strategic partnership between Homeless Network Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Housing First provides ordinary, settled housing as a first response for people whose homelessness is made harder by experiences such as trauma, addiction and mental ill health.Scotland is the first part of the UK to move ahead with a national rollout, with local authorities at the spearhead of this transformation.

Branching Out, The National Framework for organisations and sectors starting up or scaling up Housing First in Scotland, has been updated ahead of the webinar to reflect the latest research and data.

Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said:

“The Scottish Government has committed to scale up Housing First and all councils in Scotland have local plans on how Housing First will be implemented in their area.

“However, there’s doing something and there’s doing the right thing, at the right time and in the right place. We know that local authorities are naturally reflective and already committed to the Housing First approach. The new annual check-up process builds on this strong foundation with additional support and advice, safeguarding the elements that make Housing First work.”

Updates to the 100-page National Framework, endorsed by the Scottish Government, SFHA, CIH and Wheatley Group among others, link into the Prevention Review Group report, Shared Spaces research into shared and supported accommodation and the Housing First Interim Evaluation Report delivered by I-SPHERE at Heriot-Watt University. The Framework is a ‘how to and why’ guide to planning, commissioning and delivering the approach locally and nationally covering community justice, housing and social care issues as well as local and national government.

Growing evidence from across Scotland and the rest of the UK supports the delivery of Housing First for specific groups in addition to the wider group of people with the sharpest experiences of homelessness. For example, the Rock Trust and Almond Housing Association have tested Housing First for young people leaving care in West Lothian and their evaluation shows that:

  • All but one young person has continued to sustain their tenancy.
  • All young people described ways in which their relationship with their Housing First worker had led to positive changes in their life.
  • Some young people reported improvements in mental health and satisfaction with life, healthy eating and exercise, and some reported fewer problems as a result of substance misuse.

The Housing First Check Up webinar for Local Authorities and Partners takes place on Thursday 25 November 2021 from 10am to 12.00pm on the MS Teams platform. The event will be hosted by Sir Andrew Cubie and Marion Gibbs, Team Leader – Homelessness, with the Scottish Government. Book a place here.