Housing and benefits advice
Expert advice on housing and benefit is crucial to help people rebuild their lives.
Few of our clients are entitled to social housing but we have excellent relationships with private landlords and can help people find housing locally including, in some cases, help with deposits.
Our trained advisers offer individual advice and can help service users claim the benefits to which they are entitled. We also offer advice and support to help people sustain their tenancies.
For rough sleepers we can help find hostel accommodation and also put them in touch with other services, such as Street Rescue.
"I came to London to find accommodation because I was homeless. Deptford Reach helped me find a private landlord. I got a home and they helped me claim housing benefit. I am now settled and feeling better."
Roger, 69
"Deptford Reach is trying to find accommodation for us together."
Rebecca, 18, and Steven, 19 (read their story)
Private rented sector
Deptford Reach is helping homeless people to find and keep tenancies with private landlords, through its Private Rented Sector Scheme.
The scheme is aimed at people aged 18-49 with a history of homelessness, or who are at risk of becoming homeless. It helps them find homes in the private rented sector - including offering the support they need to manage tenancies and move away from homelessness forever.
So far we have helped 27 people find and keep tenancies and have just been awarded further funding from Crisis, so we can help more people.
Each person on the scheme is given individual support to maximise their benefits, contact suitable landlords, find roommates, improve their budgeting skills and set up regular payment methods.
Every person has an individual support plan to ensure they get the help they need with,for example, finding basic home furnishings, cooking skills, accessing training and job searches. Support is also available with substance misuse issues, if required. All of these services are available through Deptford Reach.
To landlords we provide a bond as financial security for each client. We also make sure clients' housing benefit claims are fast-tracked and arrange direct payments to landlords for a minimum of six months during the tenants' pre-training programme.
The project is funded by Crisis and also supported by the Lee Charity and Drapers Charitable Foundation.
