In the previous article, we highlighted the fact that many care and support providers have been slow to react to changes in market demand. Specifically, many providers need to start offering services that support people in their own homes, rather than in residential care. We suggested that one reason for this is that it’s difficult to find decent homes for people, unless providers take the bull by the horns and come up with solutions themselves.
Without help, renting in the private sector can be tough for people with a learning disability. The recent changes to housing benefit (we’ll be looking at this in more detail in subsequent articles) mean that disabled people can only afford to live in accommodation in the bottom third of the market, if they rely on welfare benefits for their income. This poses some obvious problems. In many areas of the country choice is limited at the bottom of the market, mainly because this is where competition for rental accommodation is at its keenest.
Quality of accommodation is a problem and pretty much all the time, people have to cope with tenures that have a limited amount of security, normally only six months. Some private sector landlords can be less than understanding of tenants with support needs and quite often cheaper accommodation is located in neighbourhoods that can present a risk to the welfare of potentially vulnerable people.
Care and support providers keen to develop services that support people in their own home can, however, make a positive contribution to helping people access the private rented sector and as a result can win more care and support business. Private Sector Leasing (PSL) has been used by a very limited number of care and support and housing charities to mitigate some of the problems associated with private renting.
PSL describes the arrangement where, for example a charitable care and support provider, rents property from a commercial landlord and lets the property on to a person with a learning disability. These arrangements can potentially solve some of the problems associated with the private rental market. A minimum standard of accommodation can be maintained, better security of tenure can be offered and the tenant/landlord relationship is mediated by the charity. In some cases, depending on local housing markets, modest improvements in the quality and choice of accommodation on offer can be achieved. Unfortunately, PSL doesn’t come without risk for the intermediary. Most PSL properties are let on a full repairing lease (which means that the provider has to hand back the property in the same state as when they took the lease) and the obvious risk of voids has to be taken into account. Nevertheless, PSL offers care and support providers the opportunity to help support people with a learning disability in their own home and build their business without recourse to residential care.
Buy To Help goes a long way to remove these risks and is clearly an alternative worth considering.
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