Press Releases
New employment initiative for homeless people in West London (PR 991)
Homeless people in West London are set to benefit from an innovative project to help them into training and employment.
Ealing Council will head up the West London Homelessness Employment Link Project which is designed to improve the relationship between housing, employment and regeneration services.
The Department of Communities and Local Government has provided £295,000 to fund the project. A specialist team will be created to provide council housing staff across West London with training to offer homeless people information, guidance and assistance to access local employment and training services.
Councillor Ian Green, Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Housing, said: "This project will bring together advice and support on housing, jobs and training for some of our most vulnerable community members.
"Lack of secure employment is a significant contributing factor to homelessness and we hope that this project will remove some of the barriers homeless people face when seeking housing and employment."
The project links directly to the City Strategy pilot in West London – West London Working – which is a business-led pilot aiming to boost overall employment levels in the area.
The West London Homelessness Employment Link Project aims to
deliver:
· 300 trained housing staff
· clear procedures and referral routes to help people in
housing need access employment services
· 15,000 households in temporary accommodation in West
London contacted at least twice by mail and as many as possible
directly
· 1,700 people signposted into an employment advice
interview
· 320 people referred into training
· 170 vulnerable people helped into employment.
ENDS
Notes for Editors
· The West London Housing Partnership is comprised of
the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham,
Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Kensington &
Chelsea.
· Current evidence suggests that 28% of people in temporary accommodation would like help and advice to find a job according to a recent survey in Hammersmith & Fulham.
· The West London Housing Partnership has been working successfully together on homelessness now for some time, with a sub-regional homelessness strategy to 2008 and several joint projects on the go.
These include:
· A jointly produced DVD to assist in homelessness
prevention, with 22,000 copies to be given to individuals and
community and staff groups throughout the partnership area
· Benchmarking and peer review on various aspects of the
councils’ homelessness services
· Jointly commissioned research on private sector direct
lettings
· Cross borough protocols covering temporary
accommodation and direct lettings
· Reciprocal arrangements between the councils and RSLs
to allow management transfers to take place for social housing
tenants escaping domestic violence who need to move out of the
borough
· Joint minimum standards being developed for people in
temporary accommodation.