Providers ‘disregarding rights of supported living tenants’

Supported housing providers are failing to respect the tenancy rights of learning disabled people, government-commissioned research has found.

In two reports, the National Development Team for Inclusion found that many supported living tenants had no control over key aspects of their lives, such as where they lived, with whom they lived and from whom they received support.

The reports cover the first year of the three-year programme, funded by the Department of Health, to improve the housing options of people with learning disabilities in eight local authorities.

The project is working towards fulfilling the aim of successive governments to move people with learning disabilities out of residential care settings and into the community.

One report, The Real Tenancy Test, read: “Often, people with a learning disability are given a tenancy which is less secure than it should be for an arrangement which is supposed to be long term.”

Councils’ choice-based letting systems for council housing were also found to be inaccessible to people with learning disabilities.

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Read the reports

Supported Living – Making the Move

The Real Tenancy Test

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