Everyday Heroes Award Presentation

Everyday Heroes Awards Presentation (Transcript)

Good evening. Firstly, I would like to say what a privilege it is for JustUs to be named as the partner charity for the Everyday Heroes Awards, and give a huge thank you to the Harpur Trust for supporting us over the past few years.

My name is Sam, and I am a trustee of JustUs; and for those of you that are unaware we are a charity that advocates for homeless people or those threatened with homelessness in the Bedford area, predominantly supporting people in their applications for housing to Bedford Borough Council.

JustUs was set up as a small charity in July 2014 before becoming registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in March 2016 when one of our co founders became aware that homeless people were being systemically denied the statutory housing duties that were owed to them by Local Authorities, not only in Bedford but nationwide.
This disregard of the Law is a phenomenon commonly known as ‘gatekeeping’ and can come in many forms, either through:

• A refusal to accept a homeless application,
• The denial of temporary accommodation, or
• Not being given access to social housing through a Local Authority’s housing register

A report drafted by the Local Government Ombudsman back in 2011 highlighted that they received at time of writing more than 300 complaints every year where people claim to have been denied access to help or temporary accommodation for no legitimate reason. Very little has changed since then, and it is the reason why JustUs exists today – to challenge gatekeeping when it occurs. Our advocacy helps to fill the gap left when Legal Aid was franchised out to the larger City based legal firms making it difficult to access and making it difficult to hold Local Authorities to account through the courts. This is not our only focus though. Our advocacy far extends the reaches of gatekeeping by also challenging Local Authority wrongful – some may say perverse – decision making. These decisions can come in the shape of:

• Telling someone they are not homeless when they are,
• Telling someone they are not eligible for assistance when they are,
• Telling someone they are not in priority need when they are,
• Telling someone they are intentionally homeless when they aren’t, and
• Telling someone they do not have a local connection when they do.

These decisions, when made unjustly will also deny a homeless person or family the access to assistance and the legal duties that are owed to them. JustUs works to empower and advocate for those of all ages experiencing homelessness. Without a safe and stable home, it can be difficult for people to address the issues, both physical and mental that are compounding their homelessness. We believe that no matter what, with the correct support, any individual can maintain their own home. This runs contrary to the widespread belief that people experiencing homelessness need to prove that they can maintain a home by complying with the arbitrary requirements of the prevalent supported accommodation model. That is why, as a solution to homelessness JustUs align to the Housing First model.

The Housing First model is built upon the principle that housing is a human right, focussing on first giving someone immediate access to settled and secure home above any support requirements, for example sobriety or abstinence. The model differs from the staircase model – of street to night shelter to hostel to move-on housing to home – which requires a person to ‘sign-up’ to support before being given access to accommodation. This outdated staircase model is a lengthy, expensive, and disempowering process that has many risks for failure along the way. Housing First offers wider support should the person choose it, but not as a prerequisite. Housing First is an approach that recognises housing as a platform for improved health and other positive outcomes.

At JustUs we fully understand that we will never be able to support everybody that approaches Bedford Borough Council as homeless that is why, in our endeavour to improve homelessness practice we freely give information to other professional agencies so that they too can support people in the way that we do. We are also aware that moving into a new home can be daunting so we offer assistance with the setting up of utilities and the application for housing benefit and/or council tax support should it be needed. And when we are able, we will also assist with issuing white goods, furniture items or small household goods to make life a little simpler and to aid tenancy sustainment from the outset.

I’m sure you’ll understand that this is only a brief overview of the fantastic work that JustUs does but just to give you some stats. In the last 5 years JustUs has supported 532 individuals from 76 households, this includes 197 children. If there are any further questions you would like to ask myself or our caseworkers John and Katie who are in the audience during the break, then feel free. Also, if you like what you hear and would like to donate to JustUs feel free to access our website page through the QR code displayed.

Thank you for listening.