All-Ireland Housing Awards winner 2024

Housing team of the year

The Simon Communities are a network of eight local communities providing services to homelessness across the country. 

A core function of the housing solutions team is as a key interface with partnership agencies, especially local area teams of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), to ensure the best possible service and support for our clients, service users and customers.

In response to reduced housing options for homeless people, Simon Community’s housing solutions team recognised the priority need to increase move-on options for people in emergency accommodation, particularly improving access to private renting. The team was able to contribute to rent deposits for anyone at risk of homelessness, allowing people to secure rental homes.

Alongside colleagues from across the organisation and in partnership with others in the sector, the team has been able to secure funding to offer a broad range of support options including financial support.

Often the most effective homelessness prevention is to help people remain in their own home. So, a tenancy sustainment programme was developed to help keep at-risk individuals in their own homes. Through this, the housing solutions team have done all in their power to help people stay in their current homes, including financial assistance, expert advice through our Helplines NI partnership, housing advice and practical support.

Every client in Simon Community temporary accommodation benefits from a review of their move-on options and we hold regular housing clinics in partnership with local NIHE housing advisors, to provide expert housing advice and respond to the needs of our clients. Through these clinics we have been able to improve our communication with clients and help them explore their move-on options in a joined up way.

One of our key innovations is the development of our move-on volunteer service. In partnership with our volunteer manager the housing solutions team matches clients with trained and supported volunteers, to help them when they move out of emergency accommodation. This volunteer can help the individual integrate into their new community, helping them access local amenities, shops, religious services and much more.

The work of the housing solutions team is part funded through the NIHE Homeless Prevention Fund, ensuring that work to support our shared service users is collaborative. This can be seen with improved communication, shared housing clinics with client participation, shared housing plans for clients and customers and joined up working to help people escape homelessness. In practical terms, our clients and customers feel the benefits with quicker access to temporary accommodation, less repetition of their stories, clear communication of move-on options and shorter stays.

The partnership ethos of the housing solutions team lends itself to key collaborative initiatives like Complex Lives in Belfast, meaning we can work with other agencies to support many of those in most need of support in our society.

The team works with other homeless service support providers and statutory bodies such as the NIHE and health trusts to:

• Ensure placements into Simon Community’s temporary accommodation are appropriate and prioritised for those most in need
• Improve move-on options for people in temporary accommodation, minimising length of stay
• Improve partnerships with social landlords and private landlords to identify people at risk of homelessness and provide early intervention support.

We were contacted by a school with concerns about the wellbeing of a parent. We discovered that the parent had no money for food, and their child was not entitled to transport to school. The child’s mother was going without food and walking for hours every day to bring their child to and from school, foregoing their own needs to ensure the child could get to school.

We were able to arrange transport to and from school, provide food, and pay emergency bills. With our help, this allowed the parent time to get expert advice on their finances and benefit entitlement. The child was able to keep going to school without the long, tiring walks and the parent given time and energy to look after their family.

More than 350 homeless people have received practical support to enter private rental tenancies since the induction of the team, including more than 200 since April 2022. Many of these people were able to avoid emergency accommodation entirely thanks to this support.

More than 260 clients were supported to move out of emergency accommodation and into their own tenancies between April 2022 and September 2023.