The Housing Enabling Section have carried out research projects to find out more about their client groups and to continually improve the services that they offer. We use local market data to help influence our decisions and make sure we are aware of what is happening nationally and within the East Midlands region.

The Housing Enabling Section have carried out research projects to find out more about the population breakdown of the area and client groups in order to continually improve the services that they offer. These include vulnerable groups such as:-

Young people

Hidden households

Those on the Care programme approach

Analysis of the needs of Young People 2004  - You told us:-

• You wanted advice leaflets for you
• You wanted advice leaflets for your parents
• You were unsure of where to go for help and what to ask for
  

So we:-

• Improved our range of leaflets and posted them out to your schools
• Will supply advice leaflets for your parents by June 2006
• Arranged for NACRO to carry out a drama presentation on the dangers of homelessness in each of your schools to help you understand

Analysis of Hidden households 2004 - You told us:-

• You wanted more choice
• You didn’t know how long you would have to wait on the housing register

So we:-

• Are working with private landlords to ensure they will allow those on benefits, those with children and those with pets into their properties
• Have altered our letters to you to give you more detailed information
• Improved our computer system and introduced a banding arrangement to allow us to help as many people as we can who would normally have the longest wait because their circumstances were not always the worst.
• Introduced exceptions policies for very vulnerable people who may have waited for a longer time than is good for their health.

Those on the Care Programme Approach (Mental Health) 2001 – You told us:-

• You were concerned about living amongst strangers
• You didn’t like coming to our offices to ask for advice and information
• You like leaflets with relevant information in

So we:-· 

• Worked with Advance Housing and Havelok Housing Ltd to provide specialist accommodation within our district
• Employed specialist support workers to provide you with support and information
• We will work with other related agencies to produce a leaflet that is informative and useful to you by June 2006

Rent Advance Survey 2001 – You told us:-

• The rent advance scheme money wasn’t a large enough sum
• The scheme was difficult to understand
• There was a slow response to claims for housing benefit
• You wanted information about the Landlords forum

So we:-

• Increased the maximum loan amount from £500 to £800
• Improved our advice leaflets, with refresher training for staff to increase take up
• We sent information on the landlords forum to you, added a link to their website from ours and created a page specifically for information for private landlords

Teenage Parents 2001 –  You told us:-

• You wanted accommodation near to your friends and family for support
• You wanted support from other agencies to help with training, education, budgeting and household maintenance
• You didn’t want to live near other teenage parents for support

So we:-

• Worked with Longhurst Housing Ltd to find 6 homes placed in close proximity of local amenities, with support workers going in to offer advice and support
• Employed housing support workers to help you

Those in a Women’s Refuge 2001 - This resulted in  

• Helpline numbers on stickers placed in every female public WC throughout Lincolnshire
• Poster distributed to GP surgeries, Accident and Emergency units and local post offices

January 2006 - A report defining options and implications for extended opening hours. This looks at the views of staff, service users and the general public on the Council's opening hours and access to the service.

Future research will include:-

• The appropriateness of dispersed DV accommodation against the need for a refuge in East Lindsey
• The needs of Black and Minority ethnic Groups
• The needs of Travellers
• A feasibility study of the need for a wet house
• The effectiveness of shared ownership and alternative tenure options as options for affordable housing
• Key workers
• The need for a Night Shelter
• The need for accommodation for those with drug problems
• The needs of teenage parents
• The needs of HIV/AIDS sufferers
  

Collecting performance indicators

The section is also responsible for collecting performance indicators, used
to monitor how well we are delivering our service. These are required by
the Government and we have some of our own as well.

Understanding our housing markets

We keep abreast of the changing housing markets- such as the sale
and purchase of homes, the speed that private rents increase, average
earnings in the area and the number of people on our housing register
and how many people are claiming homelessness.

Research throughout Lincolnshire

The Lincolnshire Research Observatory (LRO) is a partnership of organisations across the County who aim to share and improve access to quality information on Lincolnshire.