Today’s Friday Forum for Southampton’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector was all about housing, homelessness and the cost of living crisis.
The bad news is that many Southampton residents are struggling with access to decent affordable and secure housing and are being badly affected by the cost of living crisis. Resources of organisations like the City Council, charities and community groups are being stretched to breaking point.
As today showed, the good news is that there is a will to work together, and explore new ways of addressing these critical issues.
Professor Helen Carr from the University of Southampton has a great deal of experience of housing and homelessness issues, including working as a part-time judge on household and rent issues, and progressing housing policy approaches based on the learning from the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Helen spoke about getting all interested people together from the VCSE sector on 25th May 2023, with local government and academics to discuss housing and homelessness. Through this work they will develop project ideas in a coproduction way. See Living on the Edge event: details here
As Jamie Brenchley MBE, Director for Housing at SCC said, the data suggests that local authorities should not be progressing the same approach as previously, as this has not been working. [His presentation today will be uploaded to this website soon.]
James McCombe from No Limits raised the issue of some work completed with young people through the Southern Policy Centre and Blagrove Trust in 2019 about young people moving into independent adult life. This Help Us Move On work led to a series of recommendations. Whilst Covid may have impacted delivery, can these recommendations be revisited? Similarly is it time to relook at the previous work undertaken with young people through the “Speak Out About Supported Housing” project, which was undertaken as a part of a young people’s housing review.
Dan Pooley from City Life Church talked about work happening to address homelessness locally. People can access support and advice via this website: Street Support Southampton – Working together to tackle homelessness in Southampton and attend an event on 27th June about supporting people who are living on the streets. Housing is very precarious for many people. The cost of living crisis is leading to worse impacts for the most vulnerable. Community support is vital to help people both get off the streets and then stay in housing. Too often, support is withdrawn too early, leading to a cycle of homelessness which is hard to break.
As Jamie Brenchley reminded us, it’s not as straight forward as homes for people. We need to address the sense of community, issues to do with trauma that people face, and understand the reasons that lead to homelessness, if we are going to address these issues.
Proactive and joined up work by and with the VCSE sector could have a large impact on people experiencing this cycle.
Here at SVS, we believe that Southampton City Vision Local Plan process, which identifies the numbers of new housing needed in Southampton, could kickstart meaningful conversations and make informed decisions about the type of housing that is needed for each community. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and communities (such as through SoLinks groups) could be key partners in identifying local needs associated with planning public, private and not-for-profit accommodation.
Debbie Chase, Director of Public Health at Southampton City Council, spoke about the outcomes from a recent piece of research on the cost of living and its impact in Southampton. With a good response rate (over 4,000 respondents), Debbie talked about the huge challenge that is food insecurity, with people spending less on food, essentials and some people having to skip meals. Whilst fewer people are buying takeaways, there is a reduction in people buying fruit too. Debbie mentioned the development of a Sustainable Food Network.
Key groups being impacted by the cost of living crisis include younger people (aged 25-34), those who rent homes and have 3 or more children, people with disabilities as well as those living in S014 area. The data from this research has been uploaded to the SCC data observatory. If anyone from the VCSE community has thoughts on what an Action Plan should look like as a result of Cost of Living issues, please email Debbie Chase (you can find her contact details via your search engine). Southampton Voluntary Services has asked this work to include a focus on working with the VCSE community through coproduction processes.
Access to work and better pay is a key solution when it comes to cost of living challenges. At today’s Friday Forum there was an impassioned conversation about the impact of cost of living within the VCSE sector itself. Work is being commissioned by public authorities from the VCSE sector, but commissioners are often expecting more outcomes for less budget. As a result more charities and groups are having to walk away.
Recruitment with the VCSE sector is very hard at the moment, not least because the salaries that are being offered are not sufficiently attractive to those with the skills to deliver the work. This means the people who need VCSE support in our communities are being let down.
Southampton Voluntary Services’ Rob Kurn talked about an event in the summer, getting together leaders of local public services with the VCSE sector. As a sector we have never been more needed.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN PARTNERSHIP WORKING?
Here are some events coming up:
25 May 2023 – Living on the Edge: establishing a network for interdisciplinary research and practice into precarious housing and homelessness. Tickets here: Collaborative Research Event on Housing and Homelessness Tickets, Thu 25 May 2023 at 09:30 | Eventbrite
27 June 2023 – A conference for anyone who is involved in supporting people who are sleeping rough, those with lived experience and anyone who would like to know more about what is in place for people at risk. Southampton Street Support Tickets, Tue 27 Jun 2023 at 15:00 | Eventbrite It is organised by City Life church.
Southampton Voluntary Services is currently developing an alliance of Southampton VCSE organisations to help feed into the local health and care system. Please read the latest update here. An event is being planned for June 2023.
Also look out for a summer forum bringing together VCSE sector with local public service leaders.
Sign up to Southampton Voluntary Services newsletter to hear about these events when they are announced, and do get involved.
OTHER ISSUES DISCUSSED TODAY
A key potential area of interest is exploring how community organisations can purchase and rent property to vulnerable people. Community land trusts are a potential model for this, and could be the focus of future work in Southampton.
Healthwatch Southampton has a strong interest in the links between cost of living, housing and health. How is housing or the cost of living crisis impacting your health or the health of people you know? Healthwatch England have been doing some work on the cost of living showing that people are less likely to access health services and take medication due to the cost of living crisis (results here) . You can email healthwatch@southamptonvs.org.uk with your experience.
A new tenants union has been set up in Southampton. For more information on this important development in our area, find Southampton Tenants’ Union on Twitter: @stontenantsunion, Facebook: Soton Tenants Union, or email them at: sotontenantsunion@outlook.com
There was discussion at the forum about the State of the Sector survey, which explores the issues impacting the VCSE sector. This has been completed in Hampshire but more responses are needed from Southampton.
As always, if you have any comments on these issues, or anything else impacting the local communities, please connect with Southampton Voluntary Services. We always want to hear what matters to you.