Vulnerable neighbours in supported housing: safeguarding concerns

[StressedandNameChanged]

Not sure if this is the right area to post this but I hope someone with knowledge of safeguarding can advise.

The house next door to me is used as supported housing for vulnerable adults with multiple issues. It is a shared house, currently housing 5 men with a history of rough sleeping, alcoholism and street drinking. Most of them also have physical and mental health problems partly as a result of this history. Some have a history of offending and anti-social behaviour.

I am first name terms with them as we often pass in the street and talk. As a result of these conversations and some other incidents I am seriously concerned about the support being provided. For example, there is no control over visitors to the property. They have had squatters staying there for several weeks. They have one regular visitor who is a crack addict and comes and goes at will, and steals from the tenants and financially exploits them.

The staffing is mainly provided by a private security company, who are paid to drive past at regular intervals, respond to calls for help from tenants, and will occasionally stay at the property when the police get fed up at being called out there too often.

The security guards are a bit crap. We used to spot them regularly parked up outside with their seats reclined and sound asleep. Even when they were based inside the property, people were still coming and going at all hours and drug dealing was taking place from the property. Equally worryingly they also share personal information about the tenants (and about tenants of other properties managed by the same company) including full names and offending history with one of the neighbours.

Things have been escalating recently. One of the tenants had a nasty looking head injury recently. I asked him what had happened and he said he had been attacked. I asked where and when, and he said it had happened in the house. I asked if he had been to hospital or called the police – he said no to both. I said he should, but he didn't want to. I contacted the local police anyway to let them know, and I also let the head of homeless services know.

More than once in the past few weeks he has been approaching myself and other neighbours in tears saying he can’t stand it there anymore, that we wouldn’t believe what goes on there (I would actually: it’s a terraced house so we hear a lot through the walls). Yes, he is drunk and incoherent when he is doing this, but he is clearly distressed and asking for help, and I don’t know what to do, other than keep contacting the head of homeless services and the police. The company who run the home (a registered housing provider) are constantly changing staff and they just brush off my concerns when they get back to me at all. And due to their behaviour in the past, we have little or no trust in them.

I got in touch with social services because I thought it was a safeguarding concern (he and the other tenants are all vulnerable adults), but social services told me that as a neighbour I couldn’t report it, it would have to be him reporting it to them. I don’t think that is going to happen.

Any suggestions as to what else I can do?

You sound like a lovely neighbour.

You’ve done the right thing reporting your concerns to social services, and I find it shocking that you can’t report as a nieghbour. I’d try again - escalating if possible. The service will be regulated by the Care Commission (or equivalent) so I’d report there too.

Speak to police on 101. They could be vulnerable to county lines activities.

Sounds like possible cuckooing. I too would contact police.

I have spoken to the police. They are regularly called out to the property anyway.

People visiting the property are the major cause of the problems, but the company running it seems unable to do anything about it. They have cctv on all the entrances, but it's obviously not monitored. The regular crack addict visitor is well known to police and neighbours (she has relatives nearby). A member of staff said they were looking at taking an injunction out against her. That was several months ago, and when I asked about it recently, they said they were still looking into it, but it would cost the company a lot of money. They could very easily be cuckoo-ed, not just by her. After all they had a squatter for several weeks without anyone noticing. No signs of it being county lines though.

@AgentProvocateur it's not regulated by the CQC. The company that runs it is a registered housing provider/ housing association so it would come under the Housing Ombudsman. The Housing Ombudsman seems to be set up to deal with housing association/ tenant disputes, and I am not a tenant just a neighbour.

Speak to your MP perhaps?

Can the police notify adult social care services?

report it to your council' s anti social behaviour team. they should (if well run) liaise with adult care/housing/police to take steps. providing them with a written lists of concerns and dates is helpful. if they don't respond go to your mp/councillor.

@ABC1234DEF perhaps the police have already done this - I wouldn't know. I report things to the police, but they can't come back to me about what's being done because of confidentiality issues. I can ask them to report it as a safeguarding concern.

@Collaborate I will do that. I have mentioned it in passing to him, but a lot more has happened since then.

@Fernicktylo I have reported some things to the local council. I think my problem is there are lots of different things going on with the property, some police and crime issues, some noise and ASB issues, and no single point of contact.

The company running the property seems to be only interested in how much money they can make out of it, rather than the welfare of their tenants. Although other organisations such as the police are not happy with how it is being managed, I'm not sure what options they have other than closing it down, no-one being happy to do that because that will leave them with 5 difficult to house vulnerable people without somewhere to live.

This is my line of work so hopefully I can answer some of your questions .

They will most likely have their own tenancies on each individual flat so they will have the right to 'enjoy' their property as a standard tenant would , ie having visitors stay over , come and go as they please etc . Unfortunately due to their vulnerability they will attract people who will take advantage of this .

Do you know if anyone has a package of care provided for them ? Have you seen anyone with a carers uniform or badge come and go at regular intervals ? If you have , contact that company as they will most likely be having feeling the same frustrations as you and your concerns will back them up when trying to get social services to act .

You can raise a safeguarding concern yourself online , your local LA will have the forms on line , they will have to act on a referral .

Keep logging and reporting any unwelcome vistors or trouble with the police on behalf of the tenants , they won't always visit but it will form a bigger picture for them to look at .

Unfortunately in my experience, if any sort of authority does speak to the tenant due to their vulnerability they will say it's ok and that their visitors are friends and as it's their tenancy the cycle starts again !

Your a lovely neighbour and I could only wish I had someone so empathetic living next door to my guys .

Don't get too drawn in though , never give them money , food or any indication that you are super friendly as you could find yourself being taking advantage of .Vulnerable does not mean stupid by any means .

Thanks @saywhatnowhow that is helpful.
It is a shared house (like student housing) not flats, so they each have their own bedroom but all other facilities, kitchen, bathroom and shared living room. This makes it especially hard for them to complain about anyone else's behaviour because they can't shut their door on it. It is also quite a small world locally and as they have been on the streets and in and out all the local hostels in their time, they will know everyone and be known to them.

I think they are on licences rather than tenancies, and because of the amount of rent they are paying - one said it was £250 a week - or rather housing benefit is paying, that should include some element of care or support - which is mainly the private security company.

They have individual support workers (not part of the housing and not provided by the housing provider) and support for their various issues but not necessarily people coming to the house. There is a commissioning organisation who I have contacted from time to time as that is the only way I have of getting messages to their support workers - e.g. to let them know that their client has been admitted to hospital.

They are unlikely to complain about anything to anyone in authority, won't complain about visitors or housemates for fear of reprisals and they are certainly not going to complain about their housing for fear of being thrown out. And crap as it is, it is better than being on the street - their expectations are very low.

It is ok. My mother has worked with homeless people for 20 years in another part of the country so I am fairly aware of the issues. I am maintaining boundaries, especially where my dc is concerned. And because of my mother's work, my dc probably has more understanding of the situation, including the need for boundaries than most children their age.

The boundary I have trouble in maintaining is the emotional one. It is hard witnessing the situation, and it is literally on my doorstep so I can't get away from it. It distresses me and makes me angry.

Is it an hmo and therefore licenced by the council?

The £250 or so rent will be an enhanced housing benefit payment , all this means is that a housing provider often dressed up as a charity will say they clean the windows or some other pointless thing or provide cctv/ security for the building for maximum monies .

It won't include a package of care , that comes from a different pot .

Sorry I can't really help anymore than what I've already said , it's a shit situation for all involved .if you were to complain to the council or asbo teams it would just mean they were moved elsewhere and the room would be filled with the next person and the cycle would start again !

Just keep recording and reporting to social services or any other teams you know they are involved with ,

Most of society wouldn't give these people the time of day , thanks for not writing them off , they can be some of most amazing people you will ever meet but life just dealt them a shit hand , thanks for understanding this . My job is made 10 times more difficult because of peoples 'not in my backyard ' mentality

That is a shocking lack of support for supported housing. The council will be funding this and will have some kind of service agreement with the provider so that would be the best route to pursue IMO.

I previously worked in Supported housing with similar clients. The conditions of their licenses could easily be changed so there is a no visitor or at least no overnight guests policy. This protects all the residents in an HMO setting. Licenses are different to tenancies and can be more restrictive. The difficulty is the housing provider then actually has to ensure they monitor and act on any unauthorised persons in the house. This means staff to actually watch the cctv footage daily. It means residents and staff having trusting relationships so they can report breaches without fear of reprisal and it means night security staff doing their job! I also used to give residents warning letters to show their "mates" that it wasn't their decision, they were not ALLOWED overnight guests. This helped sometimes. Ultimately injunctions are still sometimes necessary but the housing provider needs to action this ( as you know!). I would send a weekly email citing all your observations and concerns to the provider and cc your local Housing services team, adult safeguarding team, councillor, mp, police, asb team, and the commissioning body ( supporting people team in this area) Warn them you will be naming and shaming the local authority for allowing this in the media very soon if you don't see positive changes for these people who are vulnerable to abuse.
Absolutely brilliant that you want to challenge this failure of care. Good supported housing can turn a persons life around, this provider is a disgrace.

I’d very much be reporting this as a cuckooed house (use those words) to every authority, including the police, your MP and your local ward councillor. Email your police crime commissioner personally and outline exactly what is happening. Your local council should also have some kind of crime panel or committee that holds regular meetings. Find out who’s on it and email them too.

If you don’t get anywhere, go to the local paper and tell them who you’ve contacted and that you’ve had no action from them. I’m a local newspaper reporter and we’d do a story on this. Those people are so vulnerable. We’ve had many cuckooing incidents in our town and it’s so difficult for the auntorities to do anything about them unless local people report them,

Ultimately, it sounds like the LA needs to get a closure order in the house.

@BorcesterBlue we were told before any tenants moved in that they would have licence conditions such as no overnight visitors, no drugs or alcohol on premises. I know some of the tenants were told this too. Then the first weekend was a non-stop party with tonnes of people in and out the house, clearly consuming alcohol and being off their faces. The police called several times but the security guards took no action to stop this. I think the housing provider then realised the amount of staffing they would have to provide to enforce those licence conditions, and rather than do that, they withdrew the conditions. One of the tenants who had moved in, thinking it would be a dry house and that this could be a fresh start for him to help him reduce his alcohol use, was told a few weeks after moving in that it was not a dry house. He has given up on trying to sort himself out now, he just keeps saying he needs to go into rehab.

@saywhatnowhow I had assumed that enhanced housing benefit included some level of care, because £250 a week is a lot for a small room in a shared house.

My opinion is that the company running the house is solely motivated by profit. They have identified that there is a shortage of landlords who are prepared to rent to this group of people, and very few properties in our area whose rent is covered by the local housing allowance. They are doing the absolute bare minimum to qualify for enhanced housing benefit.

The company running the house recently sold the freehold of the property to an offshore company for 3 times the value of any other house in the street. This apparently is based on the yield they expect to realise from it. This profit is all paid for from public funds. Meanwhile local public services (e.g. police) are expected to pick up the slack from their poor management. And the tenants who were expected to benefit from having secure housing are just the collateral, as are the neighbours.

It seems that a closure order is the only option that the police and local authority have as a sanction, but that will punish the tenants more than the company managing it. And leaves the local authorities with the challenge of rehousing 5 vulnerable people.

@JaniceBattersby there have been some things in the local paper about the house, but some of these have been demonising the tenants, so I am wary about going down that path. Not to mention I don't think it's fair on them to have their details in the local paper where they and the house will be easily identified.

From your update I think you're right, the place will be closed, hopefully before there is a serious incident or death.
Disgusting if this provider cannot be held to account but sadly society sees these type of residents as beyond help so often there is no public outcry.
Maybe the chap you chat with would be interested in somewhere like the projects Emmaus run? www.emmaus.org.uk/

Following a multi-agency meeting. the house next door is under review.
Twice in the last 2 months tenants have started (small) fires to set off the smoke alarms to get attention.
I think because of the review and the threat of closure the company running the place have put in increased security staff hours - overnight and 24/7 over the weekend. (Some of the security staff are shit though, not even turning up for their shifts, or disappearing mid shift.) To pay for this, tenants have had a rent rise of almost £100 per week each (this is all paid by housing benefit), so they are now each paying c. £1400 pcm each.

Though the crack addict who was causing problems there is still staying and dealing in the neighbourhood, she has not been round for a couple of weeks. She has inevitably been replaced by another dealer - yes I have informed the police with details and description.

Over this last weekend, we have had one tenant threatening to jump out of an upstairs window, another tenant injecting himself into a vein and spraying blood everywhere, which caused massive rows between the other tenants about clearing up (especially as no-one knew his HIV/ hepatitis status). Both these incidents happened when security staff should have been on duty.

The police continue to be called out to the property on an almost weekly basis.

In addition to all this there are frequent loud rows, all of which we can hear in our house because it is an ordinary 19th C terrace house with no additional sound proofing. (They are on the end of the terrace, so we are the only adjacent neighbours). This along with all the other issues are having a negative impact on our quality of life and our ability to relax at home.

It looks like it will have a closure order put on it which will give us some peace for 3 months at least.

Goodness knows what will happen to the tenants as they have already been through all the existing accommodation based services, and most of them will have been kicked out of them multiple times. There is a desperate shortage of housing for even people without problems which is available to people on any sort of benefits or whose rent is cheap enough to be covered by housing benefit. And understandably most landlords wouldn't want these guys as tenants: they do need to be in a supported and supervised environment for their own sake as well as that of their neighbours.

@BorcesterBlue I will suggest Emmaus to one of them.