The Wallich, a Swansea Council-funded housing service, has received Housing First accreditation – a nationally recognised award presented to services across the country for the hard work and dedication in tackling homelessness.
Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary, Jayne Bryant, joined Swansea Council Leader Rob Stewart and Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Service Transformation Andrea Lewis, to present the special award to the Wallich during a recent visit to the Swansea based centre.
The Council has praised the service for the hard work and dedication in the Wallich’s efforts to work with people that have become entrenched in homelessness, helping them to turn their lives around.
Cllr Andrea Lewis, said: “We are extremely proud of everyone involved in the Wallich project,
“They are at the forefront of helping people who are really struggling in their life and work really hard to make a difference to individuals and families, working alongside the Council to end homelessness in the city.
“The Housing First model is a nationally recognised approach to tackling homelessness issues and accreditation to this, illustrates the hard work and effort put in by everyone involved at the Wallich.”
Anna Hooper of Wallich stated: “We’re over the moon to receive the accreditation, and the recognition of all the hard work the team put into the service. We couldn’t have achieved this without the support of all our partners here in Swansea. We’re very proud of our Housing First service.”
The Housing First model in Wales was developed, based on international research around engaging and working with people who have become entrenched into long term rough sleeping.
Cllr Lewis added: “The reasons why people choose to rough sleep may be incredibly complex and may include adverse childhood experiences, trauma and mental wellbeing issues and which can lead to multiple support needs.”
Housing First is a recovery-oriented approach to ending homelessness that is focused on moving people into a settled home, while providing person centred, multi-agency, support for as long as it is needed. The model is successful for people with complex support needs with a history of homelessness, where traditional models of support have not been successful.
The service in Swansea was commissioned 2019 and has had many significant successes working with individuals who have experienced long term and repeat homelessness over a number of years when the existing service offer seemed not to work for them.
The service is part of a wide range of homeless prevention and support services commissioned via the Council’s allocation of Housing Support Grant from Welsh Government to deliver services alongside statutory services which aim to make homelessness rare brief and unrepeated.
Accreditation of all Housing First Services in Wales is undertaken by Cymorth Cymru.
