(Press-News.org) Resettlement services over the last few years have helped many homeless people make positive changes in their lives. The largest study in the UK of the resettlement of single homeless people has found that four-in-five (81 per cent) of a large representative sample were still living independently 18 months after being re-housed.
The FOR-HOME study followed up 400 single homeless people who were moved from hostels and other temporary accommodation into independent housing in London, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire to determine the long-term outcomes of resettlement. It was conducted by Tony Warnes and Maureen Crane at the University of Sheffield in collaboration with six leading homelessness organisations: Broadway, Centrepoint, Framework, St Anne's, St Mungo's and Thames Reach.
The research indicated that most people in the study were glad to have moved, were optimistic about the future, and were rebuilding their lives. Some had started jobs or training courses, and several had renewed contact with their family or children or built new friendships.
The research also found that:
Living independently was not easy – many struggled to manage finances and pay bills, and two-thirds had debts by 18 months;
Those who moved into private-rented accommodation had the steepest rise in debts, and were the most likely to have given up their tenancy or been evicted;
Help from a tenancy-support worker after moving was of great benefit, but only one-half received this service;
Young people were the most likely to have acquired debts, and the least likely to have had tenancy support.
One FOR-HOME participant said: "I feel that the support I received during my time at the hostel and after I moved on was invaluable, and helped to prepare me to live independently. Without their support, I would have struggled with much difficulty and would not be as successful as I am now. It was still a tough journey, but knowing I had people there to support me really made the difference".
The research confirms that resettlement services achieve lasting positive outcomes for homeless people and in the long run save the taxpayer money. Tenancy-support services are crucial in the first months of resettlement to help people who are homeless adjust to independent-living. As homelessness organisations increasingly have to rely on the private-rented sector for resettlement accommodation, more advice and support is needed for people re-housed into this tenancy.
Responding to the report on behalf of the charities, Centrepoint Chief Executive, Seyi Obakin said: "The positive outcomes for the study participants are testament to the targeted support that well-funded homelessness services can provide to tackle homelessness, with long-term benefits to the taxpayer. However, the current economic climate could put this good work at risk. It is crucial that hostels and tenancy support teams are protected to ensure that the homelessness sector can maintain and build upon this success in the months and years to come."
Broadway Chief Executive Howard Sinclair added: "It is good to see this report recognising the importance and potential of the private-rented sector (PRS). In our view the PRS, and schemes such as Real Lettings, provide pragmatic alternatives to social housing, which if set alongside the right services and support can help a person to maintain their tenancy and live independently over time."
Tony Warnes and Maureen Crane said: "To ensure that recent successes in tackling homelessness are not reversed, local authorities and homelessness sector organisations must reaffirm their common purpose and work even more closely together".
INFORMATION:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT
Tony Warnes, University of Sheffield (Tel: 0114 222 2083, email: a.warnes@sheffield.ac.uk)
Maureen Crane, King's College London (Tel: 07753 139047, email: maureen_ann.crane@kcl.ac.uk)
Matt Wilk, Centrepoint (Tel: 020 7423 6810, email m.wilk@centrepoint.org)
ESRC Press Office:
Danielle Moore (Tel: 01793 413122, email: danielle.moore@esrc.ac.uk)
Jeanine Woolley (Tel: 01793 413119, email: jeanine.woolley@esrc.ac.uk)
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. The FOR-HOME Study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The 400 single homeless people in the study were resettled in London, Leeds, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield. The final report, Moves to Independent Living, has rich information about their experiences during the first 18 months after being rehoused, the problems that they faced and overcome, and the factors that influence resettlement outcomes. The report is available online at www.kcl.ac.uk/scwru/res/roles/resettling
2. The report is published at the University of Sheffield and printed copies are available from Tony Warnes, SISA, Sam Fox House, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU (price £12.50 paid to University of Sheffield including postage).
3. A joint response to the study with discussion of the implications of the findings for public policy and service provision has been written by the six collaborating organisations and is available at http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/the-solution/influencing-policy/research/the-for-home-study
4. For more information about the collaborating organisations, please visit their websites: Centrepoint (www.centrepoint.org.uk/for-home), Broadway (www.broadwaylondon.org), Framework (www.frameworkha.org), St Anne's (www.st-annes.org.uk), St Mungo's (www.mungos.org) and Thames Reach (www.thamesreach.org.uk)
5. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2010/11 is £218 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk
END
Great hopes are always placed in new cancer therapies. However, whether new surgical techniques, drugs or radiation therapies actually prolong the life of cancer patients, or even cure them, can often only be reliably assessed after several years' of testing. Researchers are therefore looking for proxy markers ("surrogate endpoints") that after initiation of cancer therapy can reliably predict as quickly as possible whether the treatment has a benefit.
A rapid report published by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) summarizes the findings ...
However, one of the most well-known characteristics of yeast is the ability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, baker's yeast, to ferment sugar to 2-carbon components, in particular ethanol, without completely oxidising it to carbon dioxide, even in the presence of oxygen, as many other microbes do. This fermentative ability is essential for the production of wine, beer and many other alcoholic beverages.
Why do Saccharomyces yeasts actually do this and what were the driving forces behind the evolution of this phenomenon?
For several years, the yeast molecular genetics group ...
The SENTIDO Perissia hotel, located in the Turkish holiday region of Side, is to offer products from its own farm. Guests who visit any of the six restaurants of the hotel are spoiled for choice with aromatic home-grown olives, tomatoes, grapes and figs as well as freshly-harvested pistachios and peanuts all on offer among other fresh produce.
Ahmet Turgan, General Manager of the five-star hotel, said: "On our 500 hectare farm we harvest organic apples and organic vegetables, we press our own olive oil and we produce wine from our organic grapes. All this effort ...
What was previously known from animal studies has thus for the first time been demonstrated for human individuals too. "The findings open new perspectives in the intervention and treatment of visual perceptual disorders, because the changes can be induced quite simply" said Dr. Christian Beste of the RUB Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
New perspectives in learning
"The gold standard to achieve a lasting change in behaviour and perception is by means of training and practice, which intensively stimulates the brain" explains PD Dr. Hubert Dinse from the RUB's Institute ...
Climate change in the Arctic is occurring at a faster and more drastic rate than previously assumed, according to experts attending the AMAP conference in Copenhagen. The latest scientific data show that developments in the Arctic's climate are closely related to developments in the rest of the world.
"The order of the day in the Arctic right now is change. But we shouldn't expect that those changes will be linear in the sense of a little bit each day. We're going to see dramatic changes. If the ice in the Arctic melts it is going to lead to water level problems on a ...
Glover's Flooring America, an Atlanta flooring company, recently participated in the 33rd annual spring Atlanta Home Show in the Cobb Galleria Centre. In conjunction with the Consult A Home Pro group, Glover's Flooring participated in the show's SeeThru House.
The SeeThru House is a 1600 square foot house constructed by the members of Consult A Home Pro, including the Atlanta carpet and flooring experts from Glover's Flooring America. The open-walled house was designed to show homeowners how a house is built, including plumbing and electrical wiring. The house included ...
Philadelphia, PA - 11 May 2011 - Two new research studies published in Biological Psychiatry point to progressive abnormalities in brain development that emerge as vulnerable individuals develop schizophrenia.
The first of these papers studied individuals with a deletion of a small section of chromosome 22. This genetic deletion often results in the development of abnormalities in the structure of the heart and of the face, a condition called velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS; also known as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome). Up to 32% of people with VCFS develop psychotic disorders ...
Mother and kid goats recognise each other's calls soon after the mothers give birth, new research from Queen Mary, University of London reveals.
The study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, measured the individuality of the goats' calls and the ability of goats to recognise the individual differences.
Scientists Dr Elodie Briefer and Dr Alan McElligott from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences found that mother and kid goats react more to the calls from their own kids and mothers than they do from other goats they know.
Dr Briefer said: ...
The package on a supermarket steak may say "grass-fed" or "grass-finished," but how can a consumer know whether the cow spent its days grazing peacefully on meadow grass or actually gorged on feedlot corn? In ACS's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists are now reporting the development of a method that can reconstruct the dietary history of cattle and authenticate the origins of beef.
Frank J. Monahan and colleagues note that consumers are increasingly concerned about the origins and labeling of meat, as they seek assurance about the meat's safety or ...
Foster Care Associates (FCA) has received the Leading Aspect Award for empowering staff and foster carers to drive up educational standards for looked after children and young people.
The Leading Aspect Award is a self-evaluation framework designed to judge the support of educational welfare within an organisation. FCA has received positive results based on criteria such as commitment to quality, teaching and learning, sharing good practice, and disseminating innovation.
The agency has proved particularly successful in empowering foster carers and staff to narrow ...
