The government have recently announced that they are going to try to help ex offenders re-offending by helping them to find and maintain a home in the private sector.
This of course pre-supposes that landlords in the private sector will be willing to have them. And how are they going to pay their rent if benefit is going to be cut? The report optimistically says
Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt today confirmed that they will work with voluntary organisations including Crisis to offer a new scheme, in which ex-offenders and single homeless people will be given help to find and maintain a new home in the private rented sector.
Mr Blunt also said his officials will work with councils to improve access to housing advice in prisons. With a fifth of prisoners reporting on release that they have nowhere to stay, offering this kind of service could be key to stopping the revolving door which brings ex-offenders back into prison because they have nowhere else to go.
Plans could also include helping prisoners to set aside a proportion of their earnings to use for a deposit on a property when they are released.
Hmm.
I really hope that the governments plans succeed as it would be nice to see fewer ex offenders re-offending. However I have to say that I have reservations. Most landlords are negative enough about ordinary housing benefit tenants, let alone ones with a criminal record. What do you think?
Incidentally, if you are willing to take an ex offender as a tenant, you can find an insurer (as most insurance companies won’t provide cover) via the charity Unlock.
Photo (of Portmerion where the Prisoner was filmed) by jimmcd.
This proposal fills me with horror!!
Some of our flats already house benefit tenants and in my experience they do appear to need more handling, especially when they have problems with drugs and alcohol.
If the same landlords that don’t deal with anti social tenants get the opportunity to house (violent?) ex-offenders then my days of standing up to them without getting my head kicked in could be seriously numbered!
Regards
Sharon
This is not a new development and has worked successfully in the past. For it to work it needs support for the ex-offenders to be in place (note less than 12 months sentence = no probation support!!)
Hence such support, which can and has povided reassurance for LLs needs to be in place. With the SP funding being cut and having ringfence removed, that reassurance cannot be assured and hence this willfail and LLs will not accommodate