Find out how Citizen will improve its supported housing offer over the next few years this Starts at Home day

At Citizen we have a proud  history of providing supported housing and we have ambitions  to increase our portfolio over the next few years.

Our vision is simple – to give our customers a choice of high-quality housing with the care and support they need to help them lead active, safe, healthy, and independent lives.

Friday 1 September is Starts at Home Day – a campaign run by the National Housing Federation – which celebrates the impact of supported housing on communities across the UK and makes sure everyone will always have a safe, secure home that meets their needs.

We have recently reviewed our care and support strategy and Citizen has pledged to focus on tackling homelessness and ensuring services are in place to prevent homelessness, relieve homelessness when it occurs, and offer sustainable move-on opportunities.

Over the next few years, we will:

• Work with partners to provide solutions to the homelessness problems which face the communities in the West Midlands. We will develop our homelessness service further and deliver schemes elsewhere in the West Midlands. This includes an extension of the House Project to other areas. The scheme is currently run in Coventry and sees homes matched to care leavers who are aged over 16 and as part of the scheme they take part in a life-skills programme.
• Grow our offer to tackle homelessness which includes developing a modern, purpose built home to replace Frank Walsh House temporary accommodation scheme in Coventry. We will also develop a homelessness support scheme in Kidderminster and deliver five properties under the Rough Sleepers Accommodation Programme in Coventry
• Develop a support offer for victims of domestic abuse and work with local authorities to explore specialist accommodation such as safe houses.

Director of housing care and support Peter Gill said: “Starts at Home is an annual event which highlights the importance of supported housing. Good quality care and supported housing is vital to providing a safe, stable, and supportive place to live and can be the key to unlocking better outcomes for those who need it most.

“At Citizen we are committed to working with our partners to make a positive difference in our communities and that includes tackling homelessness and providing support.

“We have a long history of providing services to people who have found themselves homeless or are experiencing domestic abuse. Currently at Citizen we are committed to providing 600 new homes each year to help meet the housing shortage, our aim is to provide the right homes in the right locations, but also to ensure that we can provide housing management and support services to enable tenancies to be successful.

“We think it’s incredibly important we provide supported housing and we’re looking forward to increasing this over the next few years.”

Citizen’s current supported housing includes homes for rough sleepers and those who have experienced homelessness. We also provide housing for people who may have chronic health and social care needs that require a stable home rebuild their lives, as well as homes for single people at the Gateway in Coventry and Whitecross and New Town Road in Hereford. We provide homeless accommodation for families at Frank Walsh House in Coventry.

Care leavers are one of the groups who are most at risk of homelessness or tenancy failure and Citizen has been working with Coventry City Council to deliver the House project supporting young care leavers into permanent accommodation from the age of 16.

Citizen’s role in the partnership is to provide one bed flats which are directly matched to the cohort of care leavers when they are ready to move into their own home.

Each young person participates in several months of support, workshops and projects provided by the council team prior to being put forward for a tenancy. Young people are encouraged to form a network of support amongst the group.

Citizen is also meeting the need of older residents and has accommodation with dementia-friendly interiors, including some of the latest assistive technology to promote wellbeing and independence.

Find out more about Starts at Home here.

For media enquiries contact our Communications Team.