European cooperation on housing and homelessness continues in the wake of the Brexit vote. Elaine Ballard explains Taff Housing Association’s role as the lead agency in the UK for an EU-funded project to created a European Homeless Mobile Citizen Network.
Taff is one of three long established community-based housing associations in Cardiff. We’re 41 years old this year – 41 years – and we find ourselves at the beginning of another transformation journey. It’s a journey that has several key pillars – these include leadership, innovation, collaboration and working smarter with the resources we have.
We are more than a housing provider, we recognise that it’s essential to look at how other sectors operate and embrace innovation, especially when we are considering just how we do more with less.
These are common challenges we face and we recognise that it’s important to collaborate and work in partnership with others, especially those outside our sector where we can add value by making connections and avoiding duplication.
Sometimes you must test the water, other times take a leap of faith, but you always adopt an approach that says ‘we will seek opportunities and take on new challenges’.
We have recently been commissioned to deliver the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme in Cardiff. Whilst it’s a great sense of pride that we are entrusted to deliver this valuable service and indeed recognition of the work of our support services, it’s a reminder to me of the need to align services to best support needs of individuals. Working in isolation simply is not an option.
This belief is central to one of our latest projects, the European Homeless Mobile Citizen Network. This is a project that has seen Taff engaging with key support agencies across the breadth of Europe in creating a network committed to assisting with the needs of EU homeless migrants.
The network has given us the opportunity to share best practice and likewise learn together. It really has been a collaborative process set over two years, generating significant outcomes for managing the challenges of homeless migration and sees our support service drawing up policy with nations across the EU.
The European Homeless Mobile Citizen Network is a project in conjunction with the European Commission and its delivery organisation, FEANTSA (the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless). Its inception follows findings that in several major cities of North Western European countries EU mobile citizens are amongst the most affected by homelessness.
Additionally, according to FEANTSA’s On the Way Home study, homeless services from a large number of EU member states report a growing proportion of immigrants among service users. This includes the UK.
The network is a forum for exchanging approaches and best practice of individual and collective strategies but it also seeks to create a comprehensive picture of EU homeless migration and develop a holistic approach to how it is managed at local, national and European policy level. The outcomes and practice are to be disseminated to professionals across the EU through the creation of a website and local dissemination events.
Further aims of the network include the development of a secure login to allow organisations to provide seamless assistance to homeless citizens between states.
In working to realise these outcomes, Locality Solutions was commissioned to produce the invaluable resources for agencies to share best practice, communicate on policy and identify trends of movement.
Equipped with these tools, agencies and policy makers will be best placed for informed decision making and enabling swift processes for managing the movement of homeless migrants across Europe.
We use Locality’s anti-social behaviour case management product, which can link housing providers to police, councils, support agencies and others, so it understands the need for effective communication between services like no other. In sensitive areas like child protection, domestic abuse, and vulnerable adults, this system enables a real time, whole case view of the agencies involved and what their input and responsibilities are. It may be that this provides the silver bullet that could be the vital link to avoid some of the tragic cases we have seen over the years.
Locality works through a focus of co-production with clients. It can flex to any task, offer insight and is not bound by the ‘off the shelf’ approach adopted by so many technology providers.
Both Taff and Locality have a track record of problem solving through collaboration, and sharing our practice for the benefit of others. In working with Locality, our digital journey into European homelessness seems less exploratory but more energising, stoking our passion for being more than a housing provider.
Elaine Ballard is chief executive at Taff Housing Association. To find out more information on the working of the European Homeless Mobile Citizen Network, email elaineb@taffhousing.co.uk