Ms X had experienced homelessness for many years. She subsequently lived with family friends and in a hostel for several years and had spent approximately 17 years within the same local community, where she had established important family, social and community connections.
The latest hostel operated a policy under which residents could not normally remain accommodated beyond two years. Ms X was therefore asked to find alternative accommodation, despite her mobility difficulties, language and cultural barriers, her part-time employment as a carer and her long-standing family and community connections in the area.
At this point, Ms X approached Dadihiye through our regular drop-in advice service.
What Dadihiye did
We recognised that this was not simply a case of helping someone complete a housing application. Ms X was facing the potential loss of her accommodation and the disruption of a community network that had been central to her life for many years as well as travel costs for the area she works.
Dadihiye:
After several months of advocacy and support, Ms X was eventually offered accommodation in Ealing.
While securing accommodation was an important positive outcome, Ms X was initially unhappy because Ealing was a considerable distance from the community where she had lived for approximately 17 years. Her family, social and community connections and tha distance to travel for her work place – remained centred in the area she knew as home.
Dadihiye therefore continued to support and advocate for her.
Eventually, Ms X was accommodated in temporary accommodation much closer to the border between Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea, enabling her to remain much closer to her established family, community network and able to continue her carer work with reasonable distance.
Support did not stop when accommodation was secured
Securing accommodation was only one part of the process.
Dadihiye also supported Ms X with the practical steps necessary to establish herself in her new accommodation, including:
This continued support was important because receiving accommodation does not automatically resolve the difficulties experienced by someone who has spent many years homeless or living in temporary accommodation and have language barrier.
Outcome
Ms X is now settled and much happier with her accommodation.
Although her accommodation remains temporary, she feels significantly more secure and, importantly, is living much closer to the family and community connections that have been part of her life for approximately 17 years.
She has expressed her satisfaction with Dadihiye’s service and the support she received throughout what was a lengthy and difficult housing journey.
Why this demonstrates the value of the advice workforce
Ms X’s experience illustrates why community advice cannot be reduced to providing information or directing someone to a website.
Her case required:
listening → understanding her circumstances → housing advice → application support → advocacy → persistence → liaison with the hostel → engagement with elected representatives → continued follow-up → benefits support → practical resettlement support.
This required time, knowledge, persistence and, above all, a trusted relationship between the client and adviser and also funding resources to retain the advisor.
A less intensive service might have simply advised Ms X to submit a housing application. Instead, Dadihiye remained involved throughout the process, helping to prevent her situation from escalating and continuing to advocate for an outcome that was more appropriate to her circumstances and community connections.
The importance of a trained advice workforce
There is also a particularly important connection between this case and AdviceUK’s workforce campaign.
The Dadihiye support worker who supported Ms X had received training through AdviceUK, participated in AdviceUK sessions and undertaken the AQS training provided by AdviceUK.
This is a practical example of how investment in training and developing advice workers can translate directly into better outcomes for clients.
The adviser was not simply providing information. They were able to understand a complex housing situation, navigate different systems, communicate with statutory and voluntary organisations, advocate on the client’s behalf and continue supporting her after accommodation was secured.
The outcome for Ms X is therefore also an example of why investment in a skilled, trained and sustainable advice workforce matters.
What would make the greatest difference?
From Dadihiye’s experience, we believe a National Advice Workforce Strategy should recognise that:
After more than three decades of frontline community work, our experience is that trusted advice services are most effective when they have the stability to retain experienced people, train and develop the next generation of advisers, invest in appropriate technology and, most importantly, keep people at the heart of the service.
