News

Two of the country’s biggest Supporting People providers today told the sector it should consider coming together to launch a national Supporting People campaign, writes Simeon Brody in London.

Senior staff from Carr-Gomm and English Churches Housing Group told a Capita homelessness conference in London that Supporting People providers need to lobby government and local authorities to get across the difficulties they were experiencing with the administration of the programme.

ECHG chief executive Peter Walters said his organisation had had to supply “wheelbarrows full of paper work” and challenged the schemes’ focus on outcomes as very difficult to define for supported housing providers.

Carr-Gomm’s regional director Alka Damania said local authorities often did not understand the costs associated with high level supported housing and allocated Supported People funds on the basis of mainstream homelessness provision.

Walters said there was a case to be made for supported housing providers to meet as soon as possible after the election either as part of the national housing confederation or outside of it to take the message to government.

Homeless Link head of policy Dominic Williamson pledged to step up their Supporting People campaigning.