Over the past two years Cromwood’s business in Greater Manchester has doubled in size. Behind that growth is a lot of deal-making and relationship building that’s helping to meet a wide range of needs from a huge caseload of human suffering.
A report produced in January 2023 by Manchester City Council, showed that the local authority opened 6,525 homeless applications in 2022 – the most of any local authority in England. They had grown year on year since 2018. Almost half of these (3,188) had either been evicted by family or friends or had lost an assured shorthold tenancy. Domestic abuse and relationship breakdown were among the other significant reasons for homelessness. Finding permanent accommodation for those who qualify for help remains a significant challenge.
‘People are suffering for all sorts of reasons,’ explains regional operations manager, David Gluck. ‘We want people to be safe and happy, and maintain their rights to remain in their property.’
Suffering can mean domestic abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, mental health issues, unemployment, poverty, a history of offending, and much more besides and so safeguarding is a top priority.
Cromwood conducts a tenant survey alongside its housing inspection every four to six weeks. ‘One of the questions we ask is about mental health,’ David explains. ‘Tenants can opt into these surveys or opt out. If there are concerns, we refer them to their local authority support worker.’
Close working relationships with local authorities is crucial because they often have access to more information about tenants’ needs and circumstances, and because it is not unusual for tenants in Cromwood’s temporary accommodation to stay for up to three years.
‘We do joint visits with council support workers and have monthly operational meetings,’ David explains. ‘We’ve developed a lot more partnership working over the last few months. Feedback from councils is good. We don’t use hotels or B&Bs, we have good relationships, people are happy.’
Tenants are happy because Cromwood makes every effort to respond to their needs. In its HMO for offenders, tenants are given a welcome pack of food as well as furniture and bedding. Some singles in shared HMOs are given breakfast every week. And when a tenant recently secured a job with Cromwood, David personally called the local authority to ensure that the man’s temporary accommodation wouldn’t be at risk if he accepted the job.
In response to the human suffering is a whole load of human and humane effort to work in partnership and change lives.