Crisis Housing Coach
Crisis delivers a housing coach model to prepare and assist people in accessing PRS accommodation. This equips them with the skills to communicate with landlords and to manage fluctuating income and benefits.
The housing coach model was set up to enable people living in hostels to develop the skills and the motivation to find and sustain a home with a private landlord. It is a work first model - this means that clients are only able to move once they are in formalised employment, are able to demonstrate a degree of financial capability, and that they are settled in their new working lifestyle.
Services for clients
Please note this is an in-house service for Crisis clients only and no referrals from external agencies will be accepted.
The Housing Coach searches for properties in the preferred borough with the client and all rents have to be below Local Housing Allowance so that if a client becomes unemployed they are able to sustain their tenancy. A Home Start grant is paid to the client to enable rent in advance or a deposit to be paid, but rigorous standards need to be met before this grant is paid.
Regular private rented sector coffee evenings are held where a panel of clients that have moved and resettled are joined by a landlord or letting agent, and they invite questions from other clients that are considering a move, to help overcome any concerns they might have.
Once a client has moved, the Housing Coach offers a six month post tenancy service to ensure that the client is confident when dealing with landlords and housing related matters. If the tenancy has been successful at the end of six months, the client receives a Graduation Grant.
Outcomes
This approach has been highly effective at enabling people to leave homelessness behind for good. In the four years that one particular programme ran in London and Tyneside, 128 private rented sector tenancies were created of which only three failed.
