Jay has been on the GM Housing First programme for more than two years and his progress has been steady.
That was until an incident left him badly injured and requiring several operations which effectively saved his life.
While in hospital, he was served with a Section 21 notice forcing him to leave his property as his private landlord was selling up.
His GM Housing First Worker looked at a managed move and was given an “out of choice” offer. The offer was to view and move in within that week. His Housing First worker arrange for the new landlord to allow a few more days.
As he was recovering from his operations, he wasn’t physically able to move his belongings to his new property so his Housing First worker, Cheryl, and two colleagues helped to clear his old property and move him into his new home but also return his old home to its former state.
Jay had lived in this property for two years, and although the request seemed a bit unreasonable on the recharges, the team got to work on making sure that everything was streamlined as possible for Jay.
He was under quite a bit of pressure from the landlord so the GMHF team shouldered some of the burden by clearing the property themselves and arranged the re-carpeting of that property.
The team arranged an overlap on his rents to give a week's grace so we could move him from one property to another.
Instead of just doing the minimum, the team went the extra mile, and made sure that his new property was as homely and looking nice for him for when he was discharged from hospital.
The team took a trauma-informed approach so Jay would feel safe in his new home and everything will be set up for him - his gas and electric, council tax etc and all the things that come with signing up a property and making sure that he had enough funds so he could get a hot shower and heating for his recovery from hospital.
When Jay was discharged and he went to his new property it wasn’t long before he was referring to his new property as “home” where before he just called his old place “the flat”.
He has settled into his new home very quickly and has become very house proud. He was given an air fryer by his mum for his birthday and tells his Housing First Workers what delicious meals he’s rustled up.
On reflection, looking at our trauma-informed approach, the basic needs of heating, lighting, food, furniture, furnishings, carpets and curtains is integral to helping someone settle in a new property.
It helps a person set their foundations, feel safe and helps them move forward from that platform into further progression.
Being able to work in this high-fidelity way for a person is really important to say that you are truly supporting them. Other services would agree with this as it proves that it works in setting a person to a standard of their life that is equal to others and making them feel safe.
As Jay moves forward, the next steps have already started taking place. He is arranging his appointments and engaging more with services.
Family intervention and assistance is also underway and the team has engaged with Jay’s mum and are actively taking the role to help mum with travel anxiety. She has now been to visit his flat and took him a really nice Spanish chicken stew on his request.
The team will continue to help mum by meeting her and getting the tram to see him. This will give Jay the holistic and wrap around support necessary for his recovery any new ventures in his life.
Jay says he’s doing well and has genuine enthusiasm for the future. That is the power of the regional partnership.