Supported and specialist housing – Further guidance

Supported and specialised housing for disabled and older Londoners

Schemes for disabled and older Londoners must support greater independence for residents. Some may have personal care and support integrated within them, while others may have visiting care or support or simply facilities or design features that promote independent living, reduce loneliness and enable residents to remain in their property as their care and support needs increase. When submitting bids, investment partners should demonstrate how their proposed scheme would meet both the current and future care, support and other needs of their intended residents.

Design is particularly important in schemes for disabled and older people, and schemes should incorporate the Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) principles and other relevant guidance and best practice.

Supported accommodation for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness

Schemes for Londoners who are homeless or at risk of homelessness must, as a key aim, prevent homelessness or support people to move away from homelessness and rebuild their lives.

The types of schemes that may be funded include relatively short-term accommodation, such as homelessness hostels and other housing with support, for rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping. Bids for refuge or other emergency accommodation for victims of violence against women and girls are also strongly encouraged. The Mayor also welcomes bids for schemes providing longer-term accommodation, for example, for young people at risk of homelessness, particularly where they will be supported to maintain work or training.

Private living spaces within new hostels, refuges and other short-term accommodation must have a total floor space of no less than 12.52m per unit in new build and 10.5 sq2m in existing buildings. Schemes for parents with dependents are expected to provide private living spaces that can accommodate a parent and child. As a minimum, proposals should demonstrate how the design of the scheme will allow families to be accommodated together (for example, through the use of partition doors to allow rooms to be connected).

Self-contained rather than shared accommodation is generally preferred, and at the very least all units should have an en-suite bathroom. Where bids include shared accommodation or communal areas, they must include a description of how relevant statutory requirements and local environmental health standards will be met. Bids must also include details of how units and their locality meet the safety and security needs of the client group more broadly. This is particularly important for victims of domestic abuse.

Move-on accommodation

This type of accommodation should be earmarked for people who are moving on from either homelessness hostels or other services, or refuges, because they no longer require the support services offered in those types of accommodation. It can also be earmarked for those leaving the streets who would benefit from a ‘Housing First’ approach. Bids should adhere to the criteria for capital funding set out in the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Programme prospectus.

Gypsies and Travellers

The Mayor is committed to working with Gypsy and Traveller communities, and with councils, to provide new pitches and sites and improvements to existing sites through this programme. While the priority for funding is new permanent supply, we recognise that in some areas the needs of local communities are best met through other forms of provision, such as temporary or transit pitches provided on permanent sites.

Older Persons Shared Ownership

Older Persons Shared Ownership operates on Shared Ownership principles but with some differences from the Government’s new Shared Ownership model:

• it is only available for people aged 55 or over
• the maximum level of equity that can be purchased is 75%
• when the maximum level of equity has been purchased the leaseholder does not have to pay rent on the remaining 25% share of the property
• at 75% ownership, the leaseholder does not have to pay rent on the remaining 25% share of the property

Investment partners must give priority to people who are unable to afford the full costs of purchasing a suitable property that meets their needs on the open market. Investment partners must not consider any sale to a person younger than 55. The Housing Ombudsman Service has ruled that sales to someone not meeting the age restriction could be a breach of the terms of the lease.

Home Ownership for People with long-term disabilities

Home Ownership for People with long-term disabilities operates in the same way as the Government’s new Shared Ownership model lease, except that it is designed to assist people with long-term disabilities to purchase a second-hand home on the open market more suitable for their needs.

Remodelled accommodation

Proposals to remodel existing schemes are acceptable where they demonstrate value for money. This is subject to local authority agreement that the existing scheme is no longer suitable, and that the remodelled scheme will continue to meet local, sub-regional or regional needs over the long term. Bids should include details of any public funding that has previously gone into the scheme. It is also important to consider the implication of VAT on refurbishment works and the potential for increased density to deliver an increased number of homes.

The decision to remodel should be based on an options appraisal for the site where the remodelling option can be shown to provide a better overall outcome than the option to demolish and rebuild new, and potentially an increased number of, units to current design and quality standards. We will consider funding remodelling where capital grant has been used to fund the scheme previously. However, the bidder will need to state in their supporting statements the amount of previous grant funding and how the reinvestment of this previous funding is reflected in their current bid for funding.

Bids for supported and specialist housing should be in line with locally, sub-regionally or regionally identified strategic priorities and evidence of need, such as Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and homelessness strategies, and be supported by the local authority.

We expect bids to provide evidence that the proposals have been fully consulted on with the relevant local authority, and where relevant - voluntary sector partners and NHS commissioners and services. We would also expect evidence of the local authority’s support or, in rare cases where this has not been secured, details of their concerns.

Bidders must provide details about the provision of care and support, including how this will be delivered and funded and whether it has been committed. No revenue funding for support is available through this Affordable Homes Programme.