Support for single people

Support for single people

Placement and Assessment Team for Homeless Singles (PATHS)

PATHS is responsible for preventing your homelessness.

PATHS works by assessing support needs and housing circumstances so that appropriate support can be provided to prevent homelessness. If this is not possible or appropriate, PATHS will seek to provide appropriate supported accommodation. Where essential, they provide short term temporary accommodation. 

We work with other organisations to provide help and support to homeless persons and vulnerable people who need help in finding and keeping accommodation and services.  

We aim to:

• maintain independent living for vulnerable people in the community
• provide a better range of quality support services based on local need

» Download our Preventing Homelessness - Support for Single People booklet (pdf 1.02MB)

» Download our Housing Floating Support Services leaflet and referral form ( pdf 183KB, Nov 2010) 

» Watch our Housing Options in west London: Options for Single People video

What is Supported Accommodation?

This is housing support from key workers that might range from weekly visits to intensive 24 hour support for people with a variety of needs. This may be support in your own home or linked to supported accommodation. The support will help with a range of needs to help people live more independently. This is funded by the Supporting People Programme. These include:

• homelessness
• young people
• mental health problems
• substance use
• offending history
• learning disabilities
• refugees    

Read more information on Supported housing and Supporting people.

How can I be referred to the team? 

You can present to the H&F Advice Centre or be referred by certain organisations, including one of the following:

• Social care services
• Community mental health teams
• Drug Interventions Project
• Youth Offending Service
• Probation service
• Supported Accommodation providers
• Local advice agencies
• The council 

Who is eligible?

You must:

• have a local connection to Hammersmith and Fulham council
• be threatened with homelessness          

How will I be assessed? 

Your caseworker or care manager will help complete most of the paperwork for you. This will include a referral form as well as reports and assessment completed by other people working with you.

You can also be directly approach the council at the H&F Advice Centre and you may be referred on from there.

Once we have received the referral form, your assigned caseworker will assess your housing and support needs and will contact the person who referred you for further information if required.

If we think that supported accommodation is not suitable for you, the caseworker will give you general housing advice and help.

If we think that supported accommodation is suitable for you we will place you on a waiting list with other people with similar needs. 

We may place you in unsupported temporary accommodation if we have no suitable supported alternatives for you or while we investigate whether or not we have a duty to house you.

What happens next? 

Most supported accommodation projects in the borough pass on details of vacancies to us so we can match your details with vacancies that become available. If we think that you are suitable for a particular vacancy and your needs will be met, we will refer you. We liaise with the supported accommodation projects and your key workers/care managers on a regular basis to make sure you are suitably placed and whether you require a move to alternative accommodation if your needs change.

Supported housing placements for single people

Supported housing placements are made available to single people to enable them to gain independent living skills which are required to hold and manage a tenancy successfully. A resident may share communal areas such as kitchen, sitting area, bathroom and toilet facilities with other residents in the scheme. Some supported hostels offer bedsits which may also have a private kitchen area and/or toilet.

Permanent accommodation

Permanent accommodation can be made available to people who are able to live independently after a stay in supported accommodation and provided they are over 18 years of age at this time. This will usually be into private sector rented accommodation. Only in exceptional circumstances and for a very small number of people will move-on be arranged into social housing for people for whom the council has not accepted a housing duty.

Due to the high demand for social housing, it could take up to 5 years for a single person to be made an offer of permanent offer of accommodation after they have started bidding for properties available on the Housing Register. People for whom the council has accepted a housing duty will receive a direct offer of accommodation if they fail to bid successfully within the period allowed by their banding on Locata. 

Move-on

A supported accommodation provider can also refer people to PATHS who have been in supported accommodation and are ready to move-on. This may be into other forms of supported accommodation due to their changing needs or to permanent accommodation. Permanent accommodation is almost always in the private sector but a very small number of social housing units are available for move-on for client who are currently capable of living independently but who may, because of an underlying condition be at significantly greater risk of future homelessness without the relative security of social housing. Please ask your provider to contact PATHS for further advice or use the following link to take you to the decision making tool that PATHS applies (pdf 11.5KB) when deciding which the most appropriate option for move-on is.