YHN Annual Report 2009-10 - Your Homes Newcastle

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National standard: Neighbo “Keeping neighbourhoods and communal areas clean and safe, working in relevant partners to help promote social, environmental and economic well Our HASBET (Housing, Anti-social Behaviour Enforcement Team) works hard to reduce anti-social behaviour through supporting victims and taking action against those who cause problems for their neighbours. To support this we work in partnership with Newcastle City Council, Northumbria Police and Victim Support. We also work closely with ARCH (Agencies against Race Crime and Harassment) to tackle hate crime. In 2009/10 we achieved 75% customer satisfaction with the service and referred 100% of cases to Victim Support. We investigated a total of 226 cases during the year and of those we began 99% of investigations within our agreed timescales. These timescales were reduced this year as a result of customer feedback to: Category 1 - response the next working day (this is for the most serious types of anti-social behaviour) including harassment and intimidation, hate-related incidents, drug dealing and misuse. Category 2 - response within three working days for incidents including noise, vandalism and alcohol-related incidents. Category 3 - response within five working days for incidents including pets and animal nuisance, vehicle nuisance and fly-tipping. The team not only works to reduce anti-social behaviour across Newcastle, but also aims to prevent it from taking place. HASBET have worked closely with our Customer Involvement Team to deliver the A2B (Access to Basketball) project where we engaged with young people to teach them the importance of respect and building communities to be proud of. Reaching the finals of the UK Housing Awards ‘Creating Integrated and Safe Places to Live’ category in 2009, and retaining their Charter Mark status with full compliance in 2010 demonstrates the ongoing, excellent work of the team. We have also made a number of referrals to our Family Intervention Project (FIP) which aims to deliver intensive support to families who, due to their antisocial behaviour, were at risk of being evicted from their home. The FIP aims to break the cycle of poor behaviour, homelessness and disadvantage; help the family to get back on its feet and help children and young people back into education, employment and training. Figures from January 2010 show that it has worked with 24 families in total. 17 of these have now been closed; and they continue to work with seven. And there has been a significant reduction in the number of incidents of anti-social behaviour from those families by 80%. Customers have played their part in helping to improve the areas in which they live. By taking part in estate walkabouts, estate standards groups and the Living in Flats group they have identified several areas for improvement. The estate standards group have reduced the number of unacceptable green areas on estates across the city, and on an estate walkabout in Scotswood tenants identified general repairs, environmental maintenance and a proposal for an improvement using Area Project Fund money. During 2009/10 we carried out 264 block inspections and 241 passed. Where improvements were identified, actions were agreed to bring those blocks to the appropriate standard. page 12
urhood and community partnership with tenants and other providers where necessary. Co-operating with being, and with other public agencies to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour.” HASBET aims to help people sustain their tenancies and eviction is only enforced as a last resort where a solution cannot be agreed. The team uses a multi-agency approach to tackle cases of anti-social behaviour and here is an example of one complex case which involved several partner agencies. 1. Complaints were made to a Community Housing Office by a leaseholder who claimed their neighbour – a YHN tenant and her partner/carer (living at a different property on the same street) - were creating noise nuisance by arguing regularly and using foul and abusive language. 2. After the Community Housing Office made initial enquiries, the leaseholder began to report incidents of retaliation from the neighbour including shouting at and threatening them. 3. The case escalated when the tenants’ partner was convicted of trying to “burn” the leaseholder out of their home. The Community Housing Office referred the case to HASBET. 6. Throughout the case the tenant was assessed, under the Mental Health Act, several times. 5. HASBET attended a number of multiagency meetings to discuss the case and the tenant was warned several times about her unacceptable behaviour. 4. The tenant was bipolar and had other mental health issues, so we made a referral to Adult Services and made sure we adhered to the Prevention of Eviction Protocol to make sure they had support to sustain their tenancy. 7. The tenant was served with a Notice of Seeking Possession when her behaviour failed to improve. Her partner already had a postponed Possession Order for non-payment of rent at his address. 8. HASBET worked with Regulatory Services and Public Protection (RSPP) to pursue more formal enforcement action. RSPP served an Abatement Notice in respect of the nuisance towards the leaseholder. A Senior Environmental Health Officer said that the recordings of the noise nuisance were the worst they’d heard. 9. HASBET also pursued possession of the tenant’s property and issued injunctions against the tenant and her partner to try and stop the anti-social behaviour. 13. By the time we were granted possession over 200 complaints had been made against the tenant and her partner. This case demonstrates how difficult it can be to reach a satisfactory resolution. Residents being prepared to report anti-social behaviour are vital in helping us take action against those whose behaviour makes life difficult for their neighbours. In this case the victims were prepared to take a stand and provide evidence to HASBET which meant that we could take legal action to stop the anti-social behaviour. 11. YHN attended court with the support of the leaseholder, Northumbria Police and RSPP. 10. The court would not grant an injunction against the tenant until another formal assessment of her mental health had been made. Her partner signed an undertaking which he went on to breach several times. 12. Possession of both the tenant’s and her partner’s properties was granted and both were evicted. www.yhn.org.uk page 13
Page 1 and 2: the National Standard Your Homes Ne
Page 3 and 4: Contents Chair’s statement 4 Chie
Page 5 and 6: Look out for what is happening at:
Page 7 and 8: • we have been an active part of
Page 9 and 10: housing needs and aspirations of te
Page 11: and maintenance of homes and commun
Page 15 and 16: volvement and empowerment diverse n
Page 17 and 18: money quality services and homes to
Page 19 and 20: e and financial viability to tenant
Page 21 and 22: YHN Management structure John Lee C
Page 23 and 24: 73.1% 81% 7683 79.1% 5885 6137 08/0
Page 25 and 26: Financial accounts Independent audi
Page 27 and 28: Financial accounts Company income a
Page 29 and 30: Financial accounts Company balance
Page 31 and 32: Financial accounts Notes to the fin

YHN Annual Report 2009-10 - Your Homes Newcastle

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