Broadland Housing Association

Homes, community & support since 1963

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    Work begins on new council flats in Great Yarmouth

    Work begins on new council flats in Great Yarmouth

    A ground breaking ceremony marked the start of work on 18 new council flats in Great Yarmouth. Broadland is working in partnership with Great Yarmouth Borough Council on the £3 million development.

    Architect drawing, Jubilee Court, Great Yarmouth (picture courtesy of GYBC)

    Jubilee Court is named in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. It will comprise 3 blocks of 3-storey buildings containing one-bedroom flats for council tenants.

    Each 50sqm flat is designed to be suitable for two people and will be built to high energy-efficiency standards. There will be a communal garden and parking area.

    Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director, joined members of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, One Public Estate and H. Smith and Sons the ceremony by the Beach Coach Station in May.

    The need is outstripping supply. It’s the first time in a long time social and affordable housing has been developed here by the council. It’s good to be able to help the council piece this together. The council are really trying to meet that demand and I think this is fantastic for Great Yarmouth.

    Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director

    At the event, Great Yarmouth Borough Council Leader Carl Smith said the new development was the “biggest expansion” of the council’s housing stock in almost 20 years. Speaking to the Great Yarmouth Mercury, he said:

    The 18 new flats will offer valuable new housing, particularly for single people and young families.

    Carl Smith, Leader, Great Yarmouth Borough Council

    The homes are due to be completed in around 12 months.

    Main picture credit: James Weeds

    Sleepout volunteers raise £2,616 for innovative homelessness project

    Michael Newey, CEO of Broadland Housing Association, with John Lee of Norfolk YMCA

    Sleepout volunteers raise £2,616 for innovative homelessness project

    Volunteers from Broadland Housing and YMCA Norfolk have raised £2,616 for an innovative project that will help set up young vulnerable homeless people in their first homes.

    Around 30 volunteers, including Broadland Housing Chief Executive Michael Newey and 9 other Broadland staff, slept out on a wet and cold night in March in the car park of the YMCA Community Hub in Norwich. They bedded down in cardboard boxes to raise money for the Housing First project.  The cash will be used to buy furniture for young people setting up in their own home.

    Michael Newey and John Lee
    Michael Newey (left) and John Lee (right)

    Michael Newey returned to the Community Hub to present the money to YMCA Chief Executive John Lee – who was also among the volunteers sleeping out for the night.

    Spending one night in the cold and wet was an eye-opener for those taking part, who will fortunately never know what it is like to be sleeping rough on the streets.  For us it was just one night. For people who are homeless, they face the cold, the wet and the dangers of being on the streets night after night.

    Broadland Housing is absolutely committed to tackling the problem of homelessness, and we are delighted to be working with the YMCA to be delivering the Housing First project with them, the first of its kind in East Anglia.

    Michael Newey, CEO, Broadland Housing Association

    We are delighted at the amount raised from the sleepout, which is part of the partnership between the YMCA and Broadland Housing, which is helping to deliver a really worthwhile project aimed at homeless young people who have difficult or chaotic backgrounds.

    For a number of reasons, these young people find hostel accommodation difficult, so the aim of Housing First is to skip that step and get them established in their own homes, with a support package to help them succeed in their tenancies and get their lives back on track.

    John Lee, Chief Executive, YMCA

    Housing First is an approach which aims to tackle homelessness among people with particularly complex needs by aiming to get individuals into their own home as quickly as possible and providing them with the support they need to make it work.  It involves minimising the amount of time spent in temporary accommodation and seeks to minimise the number of moves someone has to make before they move into a permanent home.

    Community Improvement Fund 2022 – open for applications!

    Community Improvement Fund communal garden project

    Community Improvement Fund 2022

    Community Improvement Fund – now open for applications!

    The Community Improvement Fund can offer grants for projects and is designed to help tenants set up their own community project. For example, you might want to hold yoga classes in your local village hall and need support to pay for the teacher or hall hire, or to buy water butts for your scheme.  

    Your idea for funding must fall into one of the following categories:

    • Health and wellbeing
    • Community projects
    • Environmental improvements

    How to apply

    Please complete this short online form – Community Improvement Fund 2022 application form.

    If you would like an application form posted to you, please email tenantengagement@broadlandgroup.org or call 01603 750113.

    Some quick questions answered

    • The fund is open to Broadland Housing tenants only
    • The 2022 fund is open for applications once a year between 1 April – 31 May: you can only make one application per scheme
    • If you already have part funding for your project from another agency or charity or you have already done some fundraising, you can still apply to this fund

    Sponsored walk raises funds to end homelessness

    Sponsored walk raises funds to end homelessness

    The Executive Teams of Independent East took part in a sponsored charity walk from Dunwich to Walberswick in Suffolk last week. They were walking to support Homeful, the social housing campaign to end homelessness. There is still time to contribute to the campaign.

    Independent East housing association executives on sponsored walk of east coast, May 2022
    Broadland Housing executives Louise Archer (1st left), Andrew Savage (4th left), Michael Newey (centre), Catherine Little (3rd right)

    Michael Newey, Chief Executive, said:

    The walk is for a brilliant cause and we’re really pleased to support CIH President Jo Richardson’s campaign to help end homelessness. Although we work separately as Independent East colleagues, we share a similar vision and values. We want a fairer society and an end to youth homelessness, and so this cause is close to our hearts.

    Independent East is an informal alliance of five community‐focused housing associations in the East of England. The group’s purpose is to share ideas and best practice to continually improve services and better the lives of their tenants.

    PCC visits Foundations project for prison leavers

    PCC visits Foundations project for prison leavers

    The Police and Crime Commissioner (PPC) for Norfolk, Giles Orpen-Smellie, recently visited St Martins’ Foundations project. As a project partner, Broadland provides high-quality properties and the Probation Service makes the referrals.

    Foundations helps prison leavers to reintegrate back into Norfolk’s communities, reducing the likelihood they will reoffend or become homeless.

    Supported housing for prison leavers

    Foundation project workers make sure that everything is ready as soon as clients move in, including all white goods and furnishings. The properties are finished to a high standard, with crockery, bedding and other items purchased to make the house a home. It is a new experience for the clients to take pride in their home. This is the first time they have been valued enough to be trusted with a property and this empowers them to take control of their lives.

    Built into the project is support from a health navigator who works alongside the clients to help them to attend appointments. Often long-term health conditions are masked by a chaotic lifestyle. Once a person becomes settled in their accommodation, it is not uncommon for health problems come to the fore so it is crucial that people are supported into getting the treatment they need.

    Set up at the start of the pandemic, is part Foundations is part of wider project with Norwich City council to provide decent homes for people so they are no longer on the street.

    Offending has reduced

    Foundation statistics show that offending has reduced. The project has attracted national recognition and was highly commended in the Homeless Link ‘prevention into action’ awards 2021.

    Data identified a ‘revolving door’ cohort of clients who bounced between prison, the streets, hostel accommodation and back to prison. These are people at a high risk of reoffending and becoming trapped in a cycle of homelessness. Complex issues might include past trauma, addiction and abuse. Their histories make them too risky and services are reluctant to engage with them.

    Case study – Justin

    Foundations client Justin is 37 and has been a prolific offender throughout his life. The St Martins team first met Justin when he was homeless in 2014, following the breakdown of an 18-year relationship with his partner. He left his family home and reverted back to offending behaviour that was instilled during his childhood, resulting in numerous small offences, usually to fund his drug use.  For years, Justin bounced between hostels and short prison stays, with increasing paranoia and mental distress. This cycle was broken when Justin moved into a one-bedroom flat within the Foundations project. His illicit drug use appears to have stopped now he is on a maintenance prescription, and he is engaging positively with services. He budgets well, shops independently and his flat is clean and tidy. Whereas previously Justin lived from day to day – sometimes hour by hour – he now cares for his son, and has a long-term intention to get custody of him.

    The Police and Crime Commissioner commended the Foundations project as:

    a prime example of intuitive and formative thinking’

    Foundations give people the potential to achieve a place in the community, whereas they were perceived as a burden to society before in terms of court costs, policing and community safety.

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