Rough sleepers, heavy drinkers, substance misusers and ex-offenders were given personal budgets of up to £1000 to help get them off the streets and into accommodation as part of a Salford University study.
The project, carried out on behalf of the Welsh Local Authority, revealed that giving people the freedom to budget their own recovery is extremely successful with 42% now having found temporary accommodation.
The scheme was established in five pilot areas, including Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and Bridgend, Gwynedd and Anglesey, and used an ‘individual budget’ approach to help entrenched rough sleepers into sustainable accommodation and control their own situation.
Dr Philip Brown, of the university’s Sustainable Housing & Urban Studies Unit, said: “One of the reasons why the personal budget approach was successful is because it puts the homeless person in control of their situation in partnership with a keyworker.
“There was a strong desire to expand the pilot in each area but this will be challenging without additional funding.
“However, given the long-term savings that can be made for the tax payer, local authorities and their partners should seriously consider how they can introduce individual budgets to their services.”
Some of the people living on the streets used the budget to pay off debts and buy much-needed practical items such as footwear, clothing and phones.
Support workers were given around £1000 to spend on each client in order to fund recoveries, however research showed that by helping manage the rough sleeper’s budget effectively the average amount spent per person came out at just £434.40.
A support worker from Cardiff explained: “It’s all similar items that come up again and again that people want – very basic stuff.
“That’s not surprised me about it, but I think it’s really stood out that nobody wants anything frivolous at all.”
Picture courtesy of Deadly Sirius via Flickr, with thanks
For more on this story and many others, follow Mancunian Matters on Twitter and Facebook.
