We are on hand to make sure that our service users have a place they are proud to call home.
The Houses2Homes project was set up by The Halliday Foundation in 2019 as a result of identified need from our service users, who had accepted tenancies for the first time, as well as those service users during covid, who couldn’t afford household items such as white goods, beds and other household furniture. This has unfortunately been a theme which has continued due to the Cost of Living Crisis, impacting those already on the lowest income. Almost half (44%) of Glasgow’s residents, 281,000 people, reside in the 20% of most deprived areas in Scotland, with 32% of all children in the city estimated to be living in poverty in 2021-22.
Our ‘Houses2Homes’ project is a furniture reuse project, where we collect donated furniture, repair and deliver it to people being allocated a tenancy for the first time or low income households. Our work is designed to support the needs of the most vulnerable residents in Glasgow, who are living in poverty, have addictions, mental ill health, seeking asylum, socially isolated, long term unemployed or are homeless. Through our Houses2Homes project, we are able to furnish a house to make it a home, leading to service users sustaining their tenancy, reducing the instances of homelessness and the childhood trauma this often creates within families, overall improving health and wellbeing.
Before I found out about your organisation I would make claims to the Scottish Welfare fund for our new tenants in need of furniture/whitegoods in order to set up their new home but these application would take 15 working days & there was no guarantee the claim would be successful as this was a discretionary fund.
Since COVID19 the timescales for Scottish Welfare Fund claims have increased with still no guarantee after that time that the application would even be successful. This has had a huge impact not only on the tenant but also on our rent arrears. The tenant would be unable to move into the property without these items therefor Universal Credit/Housing Benefit would not pay rent until they physically moved into the property despite having a rental liability.
With the help of your organisation & how efficient these referrals are managed we have been able to get our tenants moved into their homes in much quicker & for this I am very grateful as this has alleviated pressure on both myself & my tenants & in turn has made a smaller impact on our rent arrears.
Thanks for your continued help
