Housing options & advice

Last modified 30/11/09 at 11:50

Tenants who are:

• Overcrowded, lacking two bedrooms or more.
• Under-occupying their home by two bedrooms or more.
• Living with serious medical conditions or disabilities.
• Needing to move urgently on management, social or welfare grounds.

What Housing Options are available?

• Transfer to another Circle 33 general needs or sheltered housing property. For some years we have advertised these properties through HomePage.
• Apply to be included on your local authority (Council) Housing Register.
• Mutual Exchange with another tenant of a registered provider or local authority.
• Mobility nominations out of London.
• Rent Deposit Schemes for the private sector
• To buy a property on the open market using an existing incentive scheme.
• To buy a property via shared ownership.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of options and we would like to be able to provide as many types of solutions as there are types of housing circumstance.

Tenants need to be informed in a clear way of what options are available and what is realistically possible to improve standards of living and improving life chances.

How are we implementing HOA?

• Carrying out home visits to all urgent overcrowded , under-occupying, and health and disability transfers.
• Carrying out practical improvements to properties, where possible, via the PECKs (Property Extension, Conversion, Knock-through) initiative. So far, 9 Circle 33 properties have been approved for this type of structural improvement.
• Installing aids and adaptations to qualifying homes.
• Assisting with the purchase of BSS (Better Space Saving) furniture to maximise use of limited space.
• Providing rent deposits for overcrowded families or adult non-dependants of under occupiers
• Provide under occupation incentives for tenants who want to move to a smaller property
• Working in partnership with our five core boroughs to improve access to local housing registers, for Circle 33 tenants.
• Providing assistance for tenants who may be interested in moving to rented accommodation in the private sector.
• Re-housing non-dependant household members to assured shorthold tenancies (AST) to alleviate overcrowding or allow an under-occupying tenant move to a smaller property, under the New Generation Sons and Daughters Rehousing Initiative.
• Working in partnership with our core local authorities to develop collaborative approaches to overcrowding, under-occupation and other re-housing options.
• Together with our Teams for Communities services we are working towards providing improved life chances, support, training and employment for our residents.

To find out more, please contact us at our Corsica Street office on 0800 073 0417 or 0207 447 3100.

HOA Team: Jacqui Aitken and Joyann Royal.