The Provision of a Housing First Project

Description

This advert describes the vision Bridgend County Borough Council has for a Housing First Project. The project will build on current provision and will support Service Users who have chronic housing and support needs and are often unable to maintain or unwilling to reside in temporary or supported accommodation environments. Housing First (HF) is a unique approach to help tackle homelessness in a recovery-orientated way. The approach has been evidenced to successfully support people with repeat histories of homelessness into settled and stable homes. HF offers long-term support in affordable housing as quickly as possible for individuals experiencing entrenched homelessness. Wrap-around support and connections to community-based support is made available, to give Service Users the very best chance to successfully maintain their tenancies and avoid becoming homeless again. The Service User should be central to the service, exercising as much choice and control as possible. Support should be based around a person’s strengths rather than their problems, with services working proactively and with other services to encourage and facilitate engagement. HF approaches are based on the concept that a Service Users first and primary need is to obtain stable housing, and that other issues that may affect the household can and should be addressed once housing is obtained. The HF concept originated in the USA in the 1990s and has since been significantly promoted worldwide. It provides an alternative to a system of emergency accommodation / temporary housing options. Rather than moving homeless individuals through different "levels" of housing, whereby each level moves them closer to "independent housing", HF moves the homeless individual or household from the streets or temporary accommodation into their own accommodation and builds the support around them there. There is a distinct difference between HF and generic floating support. HF has been designed specifically to help people who have the highest and most complex needs out of the housing cohort, and may not be able to benefit from usual hostels or temporary shared settings. They therefore need to be housed into general or self-contained accommodation with a package of intensive support as part of a specific inter-agency programme. Overall, the core of the approach is that people should move straight into their own self-contained accommodation (which is not conditional upon engagement with support) and that flexible, intensive support should be offered around the needs of the person. They should also have normal security of tenure. This contract period will be for 3 years, commencing on 1st January 2026 with the option to extend for up to 24 months. The service will assist with the vision of the Housing Support Grant that promotes “A Wales where nobody is homeless and everyone has a safe home where they can flourish and live a fulfilled, active and independent life”. Provision will assist the Council in fulfilling its duties under The Housing (Wales) Act 2014, Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 and Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This service will also assist the Council in meeting the aims and objectives set out in the Council’s Housing Support Programme Strategy 2022-2026 and subsequent Action Plan.