It's easy as a housing professional to become insular, focusing on particular problems in our own communities and failing to look beyond the horizon for support. But there is much we can learn from the experience of other countries tackling the same issues.
I joined a group of London homelessness staff on a trip to Philadelphia and New York, where we visited housing projects for vulnerable and homeless citizens, with important lessons for the whole British housing sector about the way we treat our clients. As a result of what we saw, Arlington – an accommodation and support service for homeless people in London, where I work – is now planning to set up a saving scheme for residents based on the services we saw offered to clients in the US.
The personal saving scheme, which was implemented in the various homelessness programmes we visited, was unusual to us, and not a tool that is often used in hostels in London. All the British colleagues I travelled with saw it as a really positive aspect of the US system. The residents we met were required to save a portion of their income, usually between 20% and 40%. This meant they were much better prepared, both personally and financially, when they moved out of transitional housing and into somewhere more permanent.
Our initiative based on this will give people who wouldn't necessarily meet the criteria of similar saving projects or rent deposit schemes the chance to securely put money away for a deposit when they are ready to move on. Residents who are doing well – managing to hold down a job, for example – will be encouraged to sign up to the saving scheme and agree to pay a fraction of their income each week. We will put the money in a ringfenced account and, when they are ready to move on, we will match the amount saved, up to £700 interest free.
The scheme is different from a bank account or credit union because the support staff at Arlington will continue to work with people through the whole process, helping them budget, looking for accommodation and negotiating with a landlord on their behalf.
It can be challenging to help people who have been homeless to get into unsupported accommodation. There are lots of barriers and customers have told us that they can find it really difficult. But this scheme, based on the American model we saw on our study tour, is simple and motivates saving among our clients. It is a very positive way to encourage residents to plan sensibly for a future beyond the hostel.
Octavia Williams is business development project manager at Arlington, part of One Housing Group. The US tour was funded by the London Housing Foundation
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