Kineara launched a licensed version of our innovative Rent Support Programme last week at a summer brunch and information day at our offices in Tower Hamlets. We had a great day, thank you all who came to hear about our work!
The Rent Support Programme (RSP), which has been running for three years, is a 10 week intensive intervention that provides tailored one-to-one support for vulnerable residents in social housing. Designed for the hardest to reach residents, the programme has had a 96% success rate in avoiding rent arrear evictions.
The event brought together representatives from housing providers from across London and the south east and gave attendees an opportunity to understand how the programme achieves its successes. Those who attended included representatives from Notting Hill Housing, East Thames Housing, and Poplar HARCA, which Kineara has worked with closely and which recently received an award for Outstanding Landlord of the Year. They were given an insight into how family intervention practices, which the RSP is based on, can provide the necessary integrated and holistic support vulnerable residents require to get to root cause of their debt.
Feedback from those who attended the event
It should have been longer!
It was great to hear from those who benefitted from the scheme and from the partners.
Great enthusiasm!
The event was a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and concerns housing providers have around supporting those tenants whose circumstances have left them unable to keep up with their rent payments. Among the many concerns raised was the worry over benefit changes and the impact this will have on the poorest residents. Many of those present expressed the need for specialist services that can reach residents when income or rents teams do not have the capacity to provide the intensive intervention that is really needed.
The group heard from our practitioners who used a live case study to demonstrate the kinds of entrenched disadvantage residents we work with are often facing, as well as an overview of Kineara’s outcomes so far. They were also given the opportunity to hear from two residents we previously worked with and ask them directly about how the RSP has impacted their lives for the better. In addition, they were introduced to Kineara’s custom designed Cost Saving Tool, developed with Interface Enterprises Ltd to measure the exact costs saved per resident as a result of the RSP intervention.
Kineara’s managing director gives an overview of RSP
With tenant evictions reported at a six year high in May this year and 64% of all possession claims across the country made by social landlords, understanding crisis and crisis prevention in relation to rent arrears is one area many social landlords understand is crucial to ensure debt does not lead to homelessness for their most at-risk tenants.
Until now, the RSP has been available for contract services with Kineara’s experienced and specialist practitioners. With the licence now available at a reduced rate of the full programme, this gives housing providers the opportunity to take the bespoke service in house with the additional advantage of bespoke training, support and consultancy from Kineara throughout the duration of the programme.
