Homelessness law in Wales – what people really want

Ahead of the Housing Minister’s statement on the Welsh Government’s homelessness legislation review, Shelter Cymru director John Puzey looks at how the charity ensured that the views of service users were properly reflected.

We have talked and written a lot about the ‘Citizen Centred’ approach in Wales over recent years but it’s sometime hard to find good examples in practice.

The new Housing Bill and particularly the possibility of new Homelessness Law in Wales, provides a unique opportunity to reinforce this people focussed approach through a new set of rights and duties.

With the most recent figures showing that homelessness applications and acceptances are at their highest level since 2009 and all the indications that it will continue to rise, developing real and practical partnerships between users and services has never been so important.

The Welsh Government had already stated its aim to involve service users more in developing and monitoring homelessness services, so when the Housing Minister announced his intention to carry out a major review of homelessness legislation shortly after last year’s election, Shelter Cymru was adamant that the review process had to include the views and experiences of people who have actually used homelessness services.

These services have a direct effect on people’s lives so it is essential that any changes are based firmly on evidence of how they are used in real life.

As a result, Shelter Cymru was commissioned to carry out an intensive citizen engagement research project, which ran from November 2011 to March 2012.

The research was extremely challenging but has proved to be among the most rewarding pieces of work the organisation has ever carried out.

There were three stages:

1. Face-to-face and online surveys with 160 members of the public asking what they would do if they ever found themselves at risk of losing their home;

2. Focus groups and individual interviews with 64 current and former service users; and

3. An evidence-giving day where a panel of 12 service users questioned key housing and homelessness figures, including the Housing Minister.

There was a fascinating range of responses offering valuable insights and ideas. It is clear that there are inefficiencies within many local authorities’ homelessness services, but people were also quick to praise council staff where they felt it was due and offer practical solutions to problems they commonly encountered.

What has emerged most clearly is that people approaching their local authority for help want first and foremost to be treated with respect.

They understand that frontline housing and homelessness officers are under a lot pressure and often have to deal with difficult people, but they felt overwhelmingly that the overall culture they experienced was one of distrust and lack of empathy, as one service user stated:.

“I think they could offer more support. It’s very hard to find a place to live when you are homeless and they need to have more understanding of that. They can go back to their homes when it hits five o‘clock; we go back to the street. I said to one it could happen to them, they said they would never let that happen… what understanding. They seem to treat the homeless differently, they should treat us the same as all the rest.” (Service user, Cardiff)

Legislation cannot magically transform the culture of homelessness services overnight. However, our panel of service users made the point that Wales is a small country and that it should be possible to use that to our advantage by creating a system that listens to what users have to say and makes changes accordingly.

But importantly this should not be a one off exercise. Continuous involvement in service design and development are key to optimising our response to homelessness and new citizen rights must be included in new legislation to make this a reality.

As they said on the evidence giving day: “We are the experts in how services should be delivered, and we want our views to make a difference.”

Let’s hope that they do.

The full report is available here

John Puzey is Director of Shelter Cymru