Homestake Extra - January 2007
Welcome to the first edition of Homestake Extra. The newsletter is produced as part of Ownership Options' Homestake Advisory Service for Registered Social Landlords in Scotland. It will highlight cases of good practice and explore issues which have arisen when Homestake has been used by a disabled person to buy a home more suited to their needs. We welcome your comments which can be emailed to homestake@ownershipoptions.org.uk
Information about the Advisory service can be found at www.homestake.ownershipoptions.org.uk. The advice line for RSLs - the Homestake Hotline - can be contacted on 0131 656 6979.
Ownership Options takes to the road!
November saw Ownership Options delivering four ‘Homestake Roadshows’ across Scotland with the final Roadshow taking place at Communities Scotland’s Local Area Office in Edinburgh on Friday 24th November.
The previous three events took place in Inverness, Aberdeen and Paisley. Delegates to the Roadshows included representatives from 35 RSLs, Communities Scotland staff, Local Authorities and a number of other relevant groups and organisations committed to considering and including the needs of disabled people within Homestake developments.
The events have been well received, with further requests for the Presentation slides and calls for additional ’Roadshows’ to be held in other parts of the country. Updated events have also been suggested for 2007 to demonstrate examples of good practice and highlight the growing number of success stories for disabled people accessing suitable housing through Homestake. Watch this space for future dates and venues.
Partnership Working with Horizon Housing Association
Ownership Options has been working recently with Horizon Housing Association which is an integral part of the West Lothian Strategic Alliance (WLSA). Horizon Housing Association have been chosen by West Lothian Council and Communities Scotland, to deliver 600 new affordable homes in West Lothian, including 100 for people with particular needs.
One of Horizon's objectives is to facilitate opportunities for disabled people to own their own home. Therefore, it is building two bungalows for wheelchair users which will be marketed for Homestake, on a site in Eliburn in Livingston. The two bedroom properties will be adapted to meet the specific requirements of the prospective purchasers. The properties will be fully integrated within a small barrier-free estate.
Horizon has asked Ownership Options to work with them when preparing Homestake Information leaflets and marketing material. The proposed literature will highlight ‘Homestake’ opportunities to disabled people.
Horizon's Chief Executive, Jim Watt stated: "We are excited at the potential of Homestake to provide opportunities for disabled people to own their own home. We successfully developed what, at the time, were the first purpose designed shared ownership bungalows for wheelchair users in Scotland, at South Gyle in Edinburgh and are confident that the Homestake properties in Livingston will be equally successful."
Assisting RSLs to assess demand for Homestake
David Shaw of Home Scotland Housing Association (formerly Home in Scotland) approached Ownership Options to suggest working together on a Homestake scheme they are developing in Dumfries.
Home Scotland recognised the importance of using Homestake to assist disabled people to access suitable properties and have other potential developments, including one in Lochmaben, which could feature approximately 18 accessible bungalows.
Home Scotland also have a site in Lockerbie which they aim to develop in partnership with a private house developer who recognises the need to provide accessible housing across all tenures. The developer and Home Scotland have invited Ownership Options to visit the sites and help plan a strategy to establish the appropriate numbers of accessible housing together with the type of dwellings and target groups.
The exciting proposals also include plans for an Equestrian Centre and a potential ‘Tele Village’ – a combined residential and workspace development which could also create accessible employment opportunities for people who want to work from home, and encourage better community living.
Stage 2 funding for Homestake
Cairn HA (CHA) has obtained Stage 2 adaptation funding from Communities Scotland to carry out necessary alterations to a Homestake new build property in Inverness. The adaptations, which included a number of internal and external alterations, will ensure that the needs of a disabled person are adequately met.
This is also a perfect illustration of how early identification of a household with particular housing needs and joint working with Occupational Therapists, the builder and the relevant local authority departments can help to provide a sustainable solution during the construction process.
The case is a good example of an RSL reacting positively to a situation and adapting a previously planned house to suit a need. However, as more and more RSLs, like CHA, are now planning ahead for future Homestake developments perhaps there will be less of a need for adaptations.
Using Communities Scotland’s 4 stage approach to Local Targeting, RSLs are establishing the need for accessible housing in their area of operation, identifying general numbers, targeting individual households and planning the appropriate types of housing required to address those needs.
The bulk of the initial fact finding and need assessment will come from local documents, working with other strategic partners, relevant groups and proper advertising and marketing tools. The opportunities and criteria for people with particular needs will need to be made clear within any, timed, marketing literature produced in advance of developments going on site.
This will determine the numbers and types of housing needed and although Homestake properties must meet the basic standard Housing for Varying Need (HfVN) requirements, Communities Scotland guidance does state that a higher standard of accessibility can be considered.
House Types
HfVN on its own is the basic standard and does not meet the needs of a wheelchair user, for example, although ‘HfVN for Wheelchair Users’ does provide a higher standard.
Lifetime Homes uses the wheelchair turning circle as a benchmark for good space standards and accessibility for most people, including parents with small children, people with shopping or bikes.
Lifetime Homes standards are the result of careful study and research and have accessibility and adaptability incorporated at the design stage. Should the needs of the occupant change over time, the homes are easier and less expensive to adapt, with minimal disruption to the occupant.
Using higher specifications of accessibility, such as Lifetime Homes can reduce the need for, or the amount of, grant funding required for adaptations.
For example, partitions can be easily removed to accommodate hoists tracks, joists are also in place to carry the hoists, floor panels or hatches are in place for through floor lifts etc.
A number of Local Authorities in England and Scotland now request that 100% of all new social housing be built to Lifetime Homes standards and the City of Edinburgh Council also require 10% of new social housing is built to wheelchair accessible standard.
For information on Lifetime Homes including, specification, costs and FAQs, log on to www.lifetimehomes.org.uk.
Communities Scotland have also confirmed that ‘bespoke’ units, or houses which need to be purpose designed to meet the needs of a household, can also be considered even if it results in additional costs.
Adaptations
The Cairn HA example, above, demonstrates that Communities Scotland (or the grant provider) will provide Stage 2 Adaptations funding in the right circumstances, prior to completion and the applicant becoming a Homestake owner.
Thereafter, as the Homestake owner effectively becomes the ‘owner occupier’ Stage 3 funding will not be available to RSLs to carry out any adaptations work.
Any adaptations required after the applicant has become a Homestake owner can then be the subject of application for Housing Improvement Grant (HIG) to the Local Authority.
An owner must be given grant towards the cost of providing toileting or washing facilities (standard amenities) that have been assessed as being required by a disabled person and can be given grant towards the cost of making any other adaptation, such as installing a ramp.
Only the first £20,000 of the cost of the adaptations (the approved expense) is normally granted towards but Local Authorities can increase this sum with permission from the Scottish Executive. The actual grant is calculated by a means test on the disabled person’s income or, in the case of a child under 16, the applicant’s income. The minimum grant is 50% of the approved expense.
Note:
The above information has been produced with Type 1 projects in mind.
RSLs involved in Type 2 projects, purchasing new properties from private developers for onward sale through Homestake, should also consider the specification, standard, flexibility, adaptability and numbers of the units they acquire.
Have they been built even to the basic minimum standard of HfVN?
For more information or discussion on any of the points raised above, please call 0131 656 6979.
Homestake Spotlight
David Ogilvie, Policy & Practice Officer for Scottish Federation of Housing Associations.
How long have you worked within the housing sector? And what is your current role/title?
I sort of fell into a career in the housing sector, starting out way back in 1995 with Refugee Housing Association in London. Whilst working there I developed a taste for housing, and so moved back home to Edinburgh to study the Postgraduate Diploma in Housing at Heriot-Watt. More than ten years later, I’m now a Policy & Practice Officer with SFHA, having started here in July 2006. It’s a fantastically diverse and stimulating role, and what I most enjoy is being able to support the work of housing associations at a national level.
In between then and now, I was a Housing Officer with Dunedin Housing Association, before becoming a Strategic Policy Officer with East Lothian Council, where I was involved in their Local Housing Strategy. After that I went on to a broad range of housing and regeneration consultancy projects across the UK with DTZ Pieda (now DTZ Research & Consultancy). More recently I worked with the City of Edinburgh Council on accessible housing strategy issues, as a freelance contractor.
How is your current job linked to Homestake?
Homestake is one of many policy areas that I have responsibility for as Policy & Practice Officer at SFHA. It’s part of my job to support Housing Associations’ involvement in Homestake across Scotland, and recently I’ve been involved in the Communities Scotland review of the Open Market Homestake pilot, which covers the Lothians. I’m looking forward to seeing what emerges from this review, as it is clear that the Open Market Homestake pilot has made a significant and valuable contribution to meeting housing needs in the high-pressured Lothian housing market.
Any surprises about the Homestake scheme?
Until Ownership Options told me, I had no idea that disabled people could access home ownership via Homestake and use their benefit income to do so.
And what do you think Homestake can offer for the future of Scotland's housing?
Homestake offers Housing Associations a real opportunity to broaden their service provision beyond social rented housing, which obviously remains a central focus for us all. There is a clear emerging section of the Scottish population who, were it not for initiatives like Homestake, face being permanently locked out of home ownership. Homestake can play an even more valuable role not only in terms of helping to meet housing need, alleviating some of the pressure on limited social housing stock, but also in terms of promoting tenure diversification and regenerating Scotland’s communities too.
What Homestake projects / Homestake ideas are you currently working on?
SFHA is currently planning to hold Homestake Practitioners Seminars in early 2007, with a view to providing its members with an opportunity to learn more and share their experiences of dealing with Homestake so far. It’s still early days, but there is clearly a big role in the immediate future for Housing Associations to play in meeting the wider needs of prospective home owners, as well as people looking for affordable rented housing.
Successful Housing Solution for Family
Castle Rock Edinvar HA (CREHA) and Ownership Options have recently worked together to assist a disabled couple to successfully buy a Homestake Open Market property in Livingston, West Lothian.
The Smith* family had bought their own property some years before. However the property had all three bedrooms and the bathroom on the upper floor. Since both husband and wife had severe physical disabilities which were worsening, they were finding the upper part of the house increasingly difficult to negotiate. An Occupational Therapist assessed the house as unsuitable for their housing needs, and the couple approached Ownership Options for assistance.
Ownership Options suggested Homestake as a possible solution and assisted the couple to obtain a mortgage of £25,000 based on their Income Support, which they were able to add to the equity they would eventually release from their house sale.
Once they had found a suitable property priced at £198,000, the Smith family contacted CREHA who assisted them towards the purchase. The Smiths were able to achieve 61% of the property’s value, due to the profit they made on their house sale, with CREHA subsidising the remaining 39% through Homestake.
The Smith family are delighted with their future new home, which they feel is all thanks to Homestake!
* Names have been changed
New Homestake Website
For those of you who have even more questions about Homestake, there is now a new Homestake Website which has been devised and written by Ownership Options. It not only provides a background explanation of Homestake, but also explains what the exception criteria within the guidance can cover.
More information will be added to the website from time to time. Forthcoming information will include highlights of specific areas of the national guidance, answers to the frequently asked questions that Ownership Options come across, as well as examples of detailed case studies and good practice.
For more information, go to www.homestake.ownershipoptions.org.uk
Homestake Hotline
The Homestake Hotline has continued to ring off the hook throughout November and December. We have had requests for more Roadshows in the future, information about what the Ownership Options service will provide to RSLs, plus difficult questions about the complexities of the Homestake exception criteria.
Please keep your calls coming. The Homestake Hotline is available on 0131 656 6979 and is staffed from Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm.