Proposed Action Item

1.4 For anyone who is legally homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, public entities (or agencies operating on their behalf) work with a person to complete a Personal Housing Plan.

This plan is to provide the person with somewhere safe to live for at least the next 6 months.

The Personal Housing Plan is a core component of the Rapid-rehousing framework.

1.9 Establish common principles in relation to Housing First services.

Supportive housing and community services (voluntary and court ordered) are used to consistently engage tenants to ensure housing stability.

▪ Full rights, responsibilities, and legal protections afforded to tenants; and

▪ Practices and policies to prevent lease violations and evictions; means to ensure that housing and community services are flexible to client needs

1.11 Establish national targets to deliver housing first tenancies.

Year 1 – 20 long-term permanent housing units

Year 2 – 40 long-term permanent housing units

1.14 Establish a Poverty Commission to provide independent advice to ministers, have a strong scrutiny role in monitoring progress towards tackling poverty and inequality and have an advocacy role to help bring about real reductions in poverty and inequality in Bermuda.

At a citizen level, ensure that critical time interventions help to prevent and end homelessness for people who have experienced or are experiencing poverty.

1.15 Adopt Housing First for rough sleepers, prioritizing: ensuring that rough sleeping is rare, resolving rough sleeping quickly when it happens; and making sure no one returns to the street. Orientation: –

o Coping Skills

o Communication

o Conflict Management

1.16 Introduce the provision of whole-family asset-based supportive interventions to help struggling families (those already homeless as well as those at risk of homelessness).

Ensure that trauma-informed approaches are applied to each child and that ongoing well-being assessments are undertaken to ensure any additional learning or social support is put in place

1.17 Ensure that critical time interventions enable people leaving corrections facilities to have confirmed accommodation for a minimum of six months and housing and support services to facilitate successful reentry into society.

Ensure that incarceration does not cause a loss of home and/or employment where possible

1.18 A duty of care is placed on DCFS to ensure a successful transition for young people ageing out of the child welfare system for five years following discharge. Between 18yo – 23yo.

Statutory responsibilities to ensure that immediate housing and support services needs are in place for the same period and these statutory responsibilities are matched with critical time interventions.

1.20 Ensure that critical time Interventions form a key part of strategies to prevent and end homelessness for people experiencing relationship breakdowns with intervention beginning at least six months from a potential homelessness event.

If a person is at risk of domestic abuse, include them in the official count of people experiencing homelessness and ensure adequate and coordinated interventions supported by social services, health professionals, domestic abuse support services and/or the police.

1.22 Fundamental reform takes place to ensure that all private landlords adhere to a legally binding standard on decency accompanied by a modern tenancy system that gives renters peace of mind so they can confidently settle down and make their house a home.

An empowered ombudsman is in place to ensure that disputes between tenants and landlords can be settled quickly and cheaply, without going to court. Similarly, the grounds for possession where there is good reason for a landlord to take the property back are established.

2.2 Common data across all people experiencing homelessness and those at risk of homelessness is defined as well as the frequency of that data capture.

▪ Establish a point of entry & exit

▪ Recording multiple entries within a 365-day period

▪ Record family with multiple members (including seniors, under 18, etc.)

2.3 Capture on a central system all people who are experiencing or at risk of becoming roofless, houseless, housing insecure, and/or having inadequate housing,

Ensure all agencies working in the homeless and housing sector engage with a central system to maintain information on a real-time basis.

2.5 Design homelessness data collection so that it follows individuals through their journey within the homelessness system – this must include data on the outcomes and success of prevention.

▪ Allow individuals to report move-on status.

▪ Auto text message annually for 3 consecutive years and again at 5 years.

2.8 Develop data sets to monitor those impacted by poverty as well as the impact of that poverty.

Develop early warning systems to identify those at risk of homelessness.

2.9 Common data in relation to both the supply and demand for housing are defined and captured on a timely basis.

This includes data in relation to affordability, access and sustainability.

3.1 Strategic housing market assessments should evaluate the current and anticipated housing needs of the population, taking into consideration the requirement for housing that is affordable and accessible for homeless people.

These assessments should also capture the existing supply of housing in both the public and private sectors including all necessary data sets to enable effective decision making in relation to planning.

3.2 Create a definition of affordable housing that relates housing costs to households’ ability to pay and meets the needs of low-income groups.

▪ Affordable Housing

▪ Average income generated by homeless sector earns over the course of two full years.

▪ Housing inventory

▪ Cost per unit/cost of living

3.3 Set a target for delivering a set number of affordable homes each year and long-term targets to ensure that supply addresses demand. Report on this publicly.

Establish a rent-setting framework to ensure that social housing delivers rents that are affordable to those on low earnings and/or in receipt of financial assistance.

Ensure that all housing supply decisions are adequately informed by evidence on the scale of homelessness

3.5 Increase access to social renting for homeless people by creating a regulatory requirement that social landlords allocate a minimum proportion of social lettings to homeless nominees.

Ensure that each social housing provider reports publicly on their performance, providing settled homes for people experiencing homelessness.

3.8 The system is agile to provide the necessary types of welfare support at sufficient levels according to the circumstances of the individual.

These levels would be established through interactions between the Government, the individual and case managers.

3.10 Streamline the process for applying for and approving financial assistance and institute key performance indicators in respect of all processes from application to payment.

Ensure that adequate support is provided and is accessible so that those entitled to it receive their entitlements in the shortest time.

3.12 Create a mechanism to provide financial support while the formal process of financial assistance is being undertaken.

▪ What can be submitted now to access? – o Rental Assistance

▪ Eviction Notice – o Food Card; o Bus Pass

▪ What can be submitted within 30 days?

o Waive bank open/reactivation fee;

o Bank letter

o Voters ID;

o Scan docs to FA

3.17 Appoint an Ombudsman for renters to take complaints against landlords without going to court.

4.1 Define a collaborative system of homeless service delivery. Establish universal core service missions.

Establish a single plan to address the issue of homelessness that includes shared strategy and goals.

4.4 Statutorily define the following as priority groups for which urgent responses are developed and required:

1. a pregnant woman;

2. a person with whom a dependent child resides;

3. someone vulnerable as a result of

a. old age

b. mental or physical disability, or

c. other special reason.

4. homeless as a result of an emergency such as

a. flood

b. fire or

c. other disaster.

5. someone who is homeless as a result of domestic abuse;

6. 16-17 year olds;

7. 18-21 year olds

a. who are care leavers or

b. at particular risk of sexual or

c. financial exploitation.

8. ex-servicemen or women.

9. a person who has a local connection with the area and is vulnerable as a result of being an ex-prisoner.

4.6 All services are designed and operated as trauma-informed, recognizing that people adapt to trauma in order to keep themselves safe, and give the client power and build trust, thus enhancing safety.

Programs and services for trauma survivors do not follow a ‘one size fits all’ approach and adequately take into account the trauma.

4.7 Create an appropriate data framework for the homeless sector so that there is ‘one source of the truth’ and data is harnessed to deliver optimal solutions for clients.

This framework would require the establishment of appropriate data sharing or exchange intra-agency and so should ensure confidentiality (only authorized parties access data), integrity (data is tamper-proof), and interoperability (all parties should be able to access irrespective of their technical architecture).

4.8 Establish a centralized case management system enabling service providers to contribute to the delivery of services using a single tool.

Deploy other technology solutions to deliver other aspects of the overall strategy.

4.9 Multi-disciplinary case management teams coordinate across agencies to support individuals with their needs.

▪ Identify app for rapid notification by concerned members of the community.

▪ Easy donations – Food Security.

▪ Keep the community in the loop on immediate needs, i.e., bed frame.

5.1 Establish an overall public policy whereby homelessness is a rarity and when it does occur, it is brief; the individual or household is supported back into accommodation quickly and sufficiently supported so that they do not fall back into homelessness.

This public policy is in respect of those currently experiencing homelessness as well as those at risk of homelessness.

5.2 A periodic review of public policy and statute is conducted to ensure that any conflicts that undermine an end to homelessness are identified and remediated.

New policies that are designed to address other issues and which have an indirect impact on homelessness are developed to ensure that they are supportive of homelessness policy overall.

5.4 Mainstream rapid rehousing is a national policy to ensure that housing is secured whenever an individual enters the social service system.

The Government ensures an adequate affordable and social housing supply to tackle immediate needs, including a commitment to continue investing at appropriate levels in affordable social housing to safeguard supply in the longer term. (This would be assisted by an agreed definition of affordable housing in a Bermuda economic context and a long-term view over the next 20 years, with cross-party support for the commitment.)

5.6 Social services (including housing services) comprise substantially all the services required to end homelessness and are funded by the taxpayer.

To the extent that services are required to sustain an end to homelessness through independent advocacy and accountability, the system cost of those services remains relatively low.

NGOs play a role to the extent that Government agencies or the taxpayer funds them directly to deliver services on behalf of the Government.

5.10 A system exists based on principles and law that includes, but is not limited to the following:

▪ Anyone facing the threat of homelessness within six months are protected by a robust set of prevention duties.

▪ A complete statutory safety net provides access to suitable settled accommodation for all homeless people.

▪ Appropriate provision should be given to families with dependent children.

▪ Public bodies have robust duties to cooperate with other bodies, prevent homelessness, and relieve homelessness.

▪ Robust and proportionate regulation, inspection, and monitoring of compliance with duties is in place and an open system of individual reviews and appeals exists.

▪ Adequate training and development of all front-line staff is complemented by duties to work cooperatively across the system with results based on the delivery of client outcomes, not service delivery.

6.3 Campaigns are developed (coordinated by the entire homelessness sector to ensure consistency) to deepen public understanding and increase public demand for change by communicating in five core areas:-

1. A homelessness definition

2. Those at highest risk of homelessness

3. The causes of homelessness

4. The impacts of homelessness and the solutions to homelessness

5. These campaigns are focused on

a. ensuring that media report homelessness as a result of policy choices not life choices,

b. eliminating negative stereotypes and

c. showing the human, community and economic cost of not ending homelessness.