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A new toolkit has been launched to raise awareness of the barriers faced by homeless couples.

With support from Tower Hamlets, Mayor of London, City of London, the St Mungo’s toolkit offers advice for anyone working in the homelessness sector, and outlines various recommendations for supporting couples.

Traditionally, hostels and other services for people experiencing homelessness have been designed around individuals, with most projects treating residents as if they are single, even when they are in a relationship. 

According to the report, there is a “clear need” for more hostels and accommodation that accept referrals for couples as well as investment into further training for accommodation teams to ensure they feel confident about supporting couples.

Outlined in the toolkit, the term ‘couple’ refers to two people who have actively identified themselves as being in a relationship. 

It also considers couples where:

  • Both partners are rough sleeping
  • One partner is rough sleeping and one partner is in accommodation
  • Both partners are in the same accommodation
  • Both partners are in accommodation but living separately

The report highlights that existing research on homeless couples has shown the need to identify and celebrate more positive relationships using a strengths-based approach in an appropriate and safe way.

St Mungo’s has said that when developing the toolkit, discussions with outreach and accommodation teams across London found many commonly held beliefs and fears standing in the way of an ‘asset-based approach’ to working with couples.

This often includes the assumption and fear that there is domestic abuse occurring in homeless people’s relationships before assessments are carried out, and the assumption that couples refusing to be seen separately equates to controlling or coercive behaviour.

In the same vein, the report highlights that if a client is in an abusive relationship, they have the right to be supported throughout this on their own terms.

The toolkit also addresses the gap in research on LGBTQ+ homeless couples, as well as other minority demographics.

According to the report, homeless people in London are likely to identify under one or more minority identities:

• London had the highest overall number of homeless households; it also had the lowest percentage of homeless households made up of White households

• LGBTQ+ young people make up one quarter (24%) of youth homelessness when only 4.1% of young people in the UK identify as LGBTQ+ and approximately 200,000 as trans

• Working class people and people from a lower economic status are at higher risk of experiencing homelessness

To address this, the toolkit highlights various recommendations for outreach and accommodation teams, including:

  • Using understanding of identity and intersectionality to help the couple to find their identity as both individuals and a couple
  • Self-educating about identity and experiences 
  • Practicing multi-agency and partnership work with specialist and identity responsive services that support clients and couples
  • Celebrating diversity days in services and creating a safe environment for all clients and couples by challenging discrimination

According to the toolkit, a lack of data and evidence about homeless couples has a real impact on clients and services – as there is often no clear housing pathway for couples.

The database for rough sleepers, CHAIN does also not include a rough sleeper’s relationship or marital status.

The majority of services are not commissioned to take referrals for couples meaning that couples will often abandon their separate housing offers and continue rough sleeping together.

In terms of this, the toolkit offers the following advice:

Outreach teams

  • Outreach teams and any service assessing rough sleepers can add a relationship status and marital status option to the demographics section of their assessment forms

Commissioners

  • It is recommended that CHAIN includes a rough sleeper’s relationship status as well as their partner’s key worker contact information if applicable. This ensures outreach workers can update their client’s partner’s key worker regularly and recognise their clients as both individuals and a couple

Organisations

  • St Mungo’s will be adding a relationship status option to their accommodation services client database by 2020. It is recommended that all homeless organisations include this and ask that accommodation workers check and update their clients’ relationship status every three months to ensure the data is reliable

The toolkit also emphasises the importance of introducing a ‘couples pathway’, meaning that identified couples will be offered accommodation together.

This would require changes to practice in all parts of the homelessness sector, including housing options to provide a clear couples’ pathway and services to create a clear couples’ policy.

To facilitate the development of a couples’ pathway, it is recommended that commissioners:

  • Re-introduce rolling shelters as an immediate response option for rough sleeping couples
  • Reduce ring fencing around awarding local connections to partners of another rough sleeper or homeless client. Currently, outreach workers are spending a lot of time and resources to prove that rough sleeping couples are at higher risk of continuing to sleep rough if they are not awarded the same local connection and housed in the same service
  • Introduce a clear couples’ pathway within Housing First, temporary accommodation and Housing Options

The report also highlights that being in a couple can affect people’s entitlement to welfare benefits, including housing benefit and Universal Credit (UC).

In these cases, workers can manage risk by advocating for their clients to have a split Universal Credit claim.

According to the guidance, if a couple wishes to start a joint Universal Credit claim and it is assessed as appropriate, the following outlines the process:

  1. One partner makes an online Universal Credit claim and states they are part of a couple
  2. A code will be given to them which is to be used by the other partner when they set up an online Universal Credit claim
  3. Both partners will be asked to sign the Claimant Commitment at the Job Centre – key workers can accompany the couple to the Job Centre and support them to explain what their needs are to ensure they are receiving the appropriate amount
  4. One partner will receive the full payment in their bank account and it is advised that the claim is made in both names

The full toolkit can be found here.