The Homes at the Heart campaign continues this week, with the theme of ‘Living well’, focusing on housing-based care and support, and the benefits of good housing for health.
Here are the key points that the National Housing Federation wish to highlight in this week’s campaign:
• Supported housing provides invaluable housing and support for disabled people, homeless people, older people, people with mental health problems and many others.
• This combination of a secure home and high quality care and support can transform lives – they can help people carry on living at home, improve life chances, and help people manage through a crisis.
• Social housing with support services preserves independence and leads to better outcomes for vulnerable people. Government spending on housing-related support saves money on other public services, especially the NHS.
• There should be a significant increase in investment in housing-related support services.
As a multi-faceted housing association, Jigsaw Homes is in a strong position to help some of the most vulnerable people in society to live well.
Across the group we manage independent living schemes for older people, extra care schemes for those living with disabilities, and through Jigsaw Support we provide supported accommodation for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness for a variety of reasons.
That equates to approximately 3,000 people who are receiving support and able to live independently because of us.
The services we provide can help vastly reduce the burden on other public services, especially the NHS. For example, regular activities in our communal areas help reduce loneliness and isolation, which are huge factors in causing poor health and wellbeing. The regular exercise classes provided in our communal areas also greatly lessen the chances of our residents suffering from trips and falls. People re-housed through our hospital discharge project are less likely to be re-admitted to hospital once discharged.
During lockdown our services have become even more vital and our keyworkers have gone above and beyond, such as arranging food and shopping deliveries for isolating residents.
That’s why we’re joining the call for government to make a significant investment in social housing to help aide the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. For more information visit https://www.housing.org.uk/our-work/coronavirus/homes-at-the-heart/how-housing-associations-can-call-for-homes-to-be-at-the-heart-of-the-recovery/
