Brand new start

Peer support worker Amy Gollings of SpringBoard and Stepping Up joins service users at last year's launch of the services

A housing partnership in Hull is giving homeless people the opportunity to change their lives for good.

On his release from prison, 27-year-old Hull man Shane Sizer faced the prospect of homelessness and life on the streets.
But thanks to the Springboard housing service, he is now living in a fully-furnished flat.
"When I moved in six months ago, I remember feeling really chuffed with the flat – it meant so much to me to have a place of my own," says Shane.
"I've also received help with cooking and budgeting to help me look after myself and my finances.
"With a fixed address, I can now start thinking about training and employment.
I want to get on a plastering course or learn to drive a fork lift truck because they'll lead to jobs with a decent wage."

Package of support

The Springboard service, along with a similar housing service called SteppingUp, is run by English Churches Housing Group (ECHG) in partnership with Hull City Council.
They work with more than thirty adults and teenagers in Hull at any one time, providing them with accommodation in leased one-bedroomed flats dispersed across the city, while helping them access education and training to find work.
In this way, clients are given the space, stability and support they need to turn their lives around.
SteppingUp accommodates young people aged 16 to 19, some of whom come from broken families or who have been in care.
SpringBoard caters for people in their 20s and 30s who've been homeless and perhaps involved with drugs, but who want to make a fresh start and restore relationships with their children and families.
"We've seen some tremendous results with our clients since the services were launched a year ago," says ECHG's regional manager John Glenton
"That's because each client is assigned an ECHG floating support worker whose role is to work one-to-one with them and give advice and even counselling on a regular basis.
"We do everything from helping our clients sort out their benefits to signing up to a college course.
It's all part of helping people gain the skills to live independently and eventually move on after two years with us, and it's working."

Amy Gollings (left) and her colleague Virginia Hall find supported accommodation for homeless people in Hull

Shane Sizer at home in his flat

Meeting needs

"Springboard and SteppingUp are working so well that local authorities in other towns and cities across the country are looking to Hull as a model of what can be achieved," says Liz Turner, manager of Hull City Council's Supporting People Service.
"One of the reasons for the success is that we consulted with young and homeless people across the city to find out what kind of help they would like and what would suit them best.
"They told us they wanted accommodation that was dispersed across the city, in a mix of different areas to help them establish or maintain links with family and friends.
"They also wanted the accommodation to be fully furnished so they could move into the flats straight away.

Supporting people

As well as finding people somewhere to live, the council's Supporting People Service also helps people to improve their quality of life in many other ways.
Older people with support needs, people with learning disabilities or mental health problems, refugees and teenage parents, are among those helped in a number of ways including with:

• General housing advice and support
• Encouragement to develop general life skills, personal safety and security in the home, including access to a visiting warden.
• Ensuring people have access to a wide range of employment, education and training opportunities, and provide signposting to other relevant organisations and activities in the local community

info

For more information on housing services in Hull or to contact the Supporting People service please call 300300 or visit www.hullcc.gov.uk