SFHA members’ humanitarian response to coronavirus crisis
Blog by Michael McLaughlin, Social Insight Lead.
SFHA has produced a series of 10 briefings to support social landlords through the coronavirus emergency. This blog looks at our briefing which focuses on humanitarian community resilience.
Through my role as Social Insight Lead within the SFHA team, I have been lucky enough to have spoken to some of our members who are taking a proactive role in emergency response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Representing SFHA in Centre of Excellence in Community Investment’s Scottish Network, there has been much discussion on ways in which Scottish housing associations are working with community groups and services, including food banks and volunteers providing food and pharmacy deliveries to tenants who have been deemed as most at risk and are therefore housebound during Covid-19 crisis
As one of SFHA’s existing priorities is to promoting economic opportunity and investing in the communities in which our members associations operate, this is great to see, and, indeed, we would look to support wherever possible.
As has been widely reported over the past six weeks or so, the current pandemic has already begun to place a large strain on the health, employment, and income of many households, and the restrictions in place during the current lockdown have severely limited the way in which local services and support can be provided. As community anchor organisations, even under the current very challenging situations, one positive I have taken is the ability social landlords have to access and analyse information and infrastructure quickly, and this has enabled the provision of some continued level of support in their communities.
Almost all of the members we have spoken to have initially used this information to carry out wellbeing calls to vulnerable tenants, using the data they have of those aged over 70, with medical issues, and living alone to highlight levels of need. Using these as triage calls to refer and signpost available support has allowed housing associations to then mobilise further support to respond to their community needs.
-
Larger organisations, such as the Wheatley Group , have managed to do this successfully using the infrastructure and services they already provide, by increasing resources, staffing, and volunteers towards this service delivery. In areas where this is logistically not possible, and they have a tenant base, they have also looked to support smaller community groups carrying out work around food provision.
-
There are also examples of housing associations using their community centres which are currently closed to the public to directly provide food bank or storage facilities to help with deliveries of food and prescriptions within the community. West of Scotland Housing Association and Glen Housing Association have both managed to imbed this in an updated service delivery process to support vulnerable tenants.
-
Partnership working alongside, promoting, and referring tenants to food poverty programmes and community hubs, where set up by local authorities, is also important for many smaller associations. There is often a need to link up local services in order to provide a combined and more efficient community resource, which has been done effectively in Govan. Elderpark Housing Association, Elderpark Community Centre, and charity Aberlour have joined forces to deliver food and shopping to vulnerable and isolated members of the local community.
I have also heard of smaller, but none the less important, interventions in terms of support for emergency circumstances, where some associations have redirected funds and projects to include small hardship funds for tenants in need. This has been used to help with essential costs such as fuel, nappies, food and medicine provisions.
However, I would also encourage associations to think in terms of a longer-term response to mitigate against the impact of Covid-19 within their communities. Alongside the information on local need that wellbeing calls or other forms of engagement have already provided, the following funding streams are available that may be accessed to provide or support local resilience projects:
SFHA is working with Scottish Government in order to provide easy access to this fund for our members. It is aimed at community anchor organisations working in partnership with grassroots and small community-based groups in order to disburse funds to where they are needed or to link with public services when solely carrying out activity themselves. Funding is to be given out for projects of new or extended activity in the community that is being delivered solely in response to the Covid-19
The Scottish Government’s wider Wellbeing Fund is available to charities, social enterprises, community groups and other voluntary organisations who work with at risk groups. Housing associations applying for this should be immediately focusing on providing vital wellbeing support on issues such as food, physical health, mental health, personal finances, home life, or housing. You should be providing activities that protect and promote the physical and mental wellbeing of your tenants and communities across Scotland.
Managed by SCVO, this fund is for existing organisations who require financial support to continue to provide services as result of impact of Covid-19 and Scotland's national precautionary measures. Housing associations looking to support existing local infrastructure and community groups may be interesting in applying for this.
This is for associations acting as a community anchor through existing infrastructure such as food banks, or essential deliveries. Where the association is the sole organisation operating and delivering activity in a community, they would be expected to link with public services and will still be eligible to apply.
Response Recovery Resilience Fund – National Emergencies Trust
This fund is available to community organisations with an income of less than £125,000. This may be suitable for partner or subsidiary organisations providing community resilience within our members areas.
This funding is available to associations that work directly to provide services to those experiencing homelessness. There are awards up to £5,000 for short-term responses, with up to £50,000 available to fund long-term projects that focus on change in service delivery in response to COVID-19 crisis.
As part of wider discussions with the Scottish Government and healthcare services, I hope to be involved in upcoming meetings with iHub in order to agree the best way to include our member associations in their local communities’ emergency response infrastructure and will communicate any conclusions from this.
We have provided our members with data analysis highlighting tenants’ Covid-19 vulnerability, with areas or groups most likely in most need within each the local authority. This can be used as a guide for housing associations as to where funds could be distributed to areas with tenants in most need.
SFHA will continue to work with members and partners through several communication streams, including Social Housing Resilience Group to provide guidance and support to collectively respond to the current crisis.