Supported Housing: Mental Illness

(asked on 6th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on funding structures for short-term and long-term supported housing of the report by Rethink Mental Illness, Mental Health Supported Housing: Securing financial stability, supply and quality relating to the variety of length of stay of people within mental health supported housing.


Answered by
Marcus Jones Portrait
Marcus Jones
Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
This question was answered on 13th November 2017

I have recently met with representatives of Rethink Mental Illness and have considered their report. In bringing forward our new model announced on 31 October, we listened carefully to the concerns raised from across the supported housing sector.

We will continue to fund long-term supported accommodation, for example for people with long-term mental ill health, through the welfare system, with 100 per cent of housing costs, including rent and eligible service charges, being met (unless other benefit restrictions may apply to the individual involved). This funding will no longer be capped by Local Housing Allowance rates giving providers the certainty they need in order to invest in future supply.

For short-term accommodation, all funding for rent and eligible service charges previously met by Housing Benefit, will instead be allocated to local authorities through a grant to funding the commissioning of provision at a local level. To protect short-term supported housing provision, we are ring-fencing this funding.

We are also bringing in a new oversight regime, with a National Statement of Expectations, to set out clear standards and outline Government’s expectations over local planning, commissioning and services.

We will continue to engage with the sector and stakeholders to seek their views on key elements of the reformed funding model. It is important that the model is responsive and will work for providers, tenants and clients.

These new models ensure that everyone who would be eligible under the current system to have their housing costs met, will continue to be so, whether they are staying in short-term accommodation, long term accommodation or in transition between the two.

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