Using the European Social Fund to develop homeless service standards in Poland

Municipal Standard of Leaving Homelessness

Jakub Wilczek – St. Brother Albert’s Aid Society

Channeling EU funds to homeless services

The Context

One of the most severe social problems in the country

The majority of tasks in combating homelessness assigned to the municipalities (2500)

Estimated 30-70 thousand homeless (ETHOS 1-4) out of 38.5 million

Highly traditional character: Men (80%)

Average age shifting from 40-50 to 50-60

Single (80%)

Poorly educated / inactive on the labour market

60% live in homeless shelters

Most alarming factor – average lenght of homelessness episodes: 5 yrs (women) to 7 yrs (men) and growing

State legislation and support system fixed solely on intervention

Poland is EU’s no. 1 in lowest housing saturation (351) and most expensive average rent (compared to average salary) cathegories

The Problems

Area 1 – Social Policy

No comprehensive social policy on homelessness

No coherent vision of social policy

No coordination, no cross-departamental cooperation

Homelessness considered a problem to be dealt solely by the social assistance system

Lack of strategic planning in combating homelessness

Area 2 – System Regulations

Existing solutions are intervention-based and occasional

„Managing” the problem instead of solving it

Lack of regulations in the areas of prevention and reintegration

The regulations provide access to occasional, basic services guaranteeing survival; no support for leaving homelessness

Lack of any standards or guarantees of service quality

The Problems

Area 3 – Data Collection

Lack of reliable quantitative and qualitative data on homelessness

Support based on views and judgments – not on reliable knowledge

Lack of monitoring systems, proposed solutions ad-hoc in character

No reliable data on roughsleepers

Understanding of homelessness – weak definitions

No participation

Area 4 – Cooperation

Competition between service providers

No consolidation of ideas, values and directions of activities undertaken

No principles of cooperation between the public sector and NGOs – numerous antagonisms and conflicts

Lack of a legal basis for cooperation with other stakeholders

The Project

Initiated by Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (systemic project)

Developed by a partnership of 6 major homelessness NGOs

Part of a larger project ”Creation and Improvement of Standards of Social Assistance and Integration Services” (2009-2014)

Largest Polish ESF project – ca. €41 million Standardisation of homelessness services (ca. €9 million)

Standardisation of general social assistance services (social work, social assistance centres)

Standardisation of community social services (group social work)

Informatisation of municipal social assistance system

85% financed under ESF

Main goal - enhancing the effectiveness of the homeless support system through the development and implementation of a support model (framework), including standards of services for homeless people and those at risk of homelessness (Municipal Standard of Leaving Homelessness)

The Assessment (9.2009 – 6.2010)

Deep analysis of the phenomenon

Assessment of the support system performance

Ca. 100 experts (representing NGOs, local governments, independent researchers and other stakeholders) working in 6 thematic areas:

Local partnerships

Social work

Housing & immediate services

Street outreach

Health

Education & employment

A starting point for developing the Model – Municipal Standard of Leaving Homelessness

The Model (7.2010 – 6.2011)

The expert groups formed in the assessment phase, using the experience and information gathered during it, created a model (framework) designed to solve the problem of homelessness locally

Framework based on 6 thematic areas, each including standardised services on 3 levels – prevention, intervention, reintegration

A universal package of services giving a municipality the possibility to choose the elements for its own homelessness policy that meets local needs and include them in local strategies

Innovative (by Polish standards) services included street outreach and housing-led solutions (including Housing First method)

A final draft accepted by the Ministry became a subject to numerous assessments – expert opinions, reviews and debates at many seminars to ensure the maximum impact of all stakeholders

The most important test – a pilot study in 20 Polish municipalities

The Training (7.2011 – 2.2012)

An open competition was announced to select 30 municipalities (represented by municipal/NGO local partnerships) and prepare them for a test implementation (pilot study) of the model

Comprehensive training sessions for 300 participants

30 local assessments (measuring the local homelessness, assessing the local support systems)

FGIs

IDIs

Desk research

Numerous study visits (abroad and domestic)

Direct support in the development of local projects implementing the model

19 local projects chosen for a 1.5-year-long implementation in the second stage of tender (ca. €4 million)

The Pilot Study (3.2012 – 8.2013)

Testing the Model over a period of 1.5 year in diverse conditions:

municipalities in various parts of the country

municipalities of different size – from 1.7 million people (Warsaw), to 9,000 inhabitants

municipalities of various nature (large urban agglomerations, smaller towns, rural areas)

Main result

Package of valuable comments and significant corrections to the Model supplied by the local partnerships thanks to their experiences

Value added

Noticeable increase in the service standards in 19 municipalities

Launching many previously unimplemented services

Experiences-based evidences in favour of housing-led solutions

Total of 7,500 people covered (majority by prevention services)

1,375 homeless people covered, almost 300 left homelessness

The Recommendations (6.2013 – 11.2013)

Revision of the Model – including the experiences of the 19 local partnerships

The final version of the Model delivered to the Ministry at the end of 2013 (accepted in June 2014)

In the meantime nearly 40 legal recommendations prepared – mostly for amendments in the Social Assistance Act

National Programme for Solving the Problem of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion 2014-2020 (draft)

National Programme for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2014-2020 (consulting, lobbing for adequate homelessness representation)

Lobbing for inclusion of the standardised homelessness services in the 2014-2020 financial perspective of the EU Funds, with a particular emphasis on the use of the ERDF to develop housing-led solutions

The Dissemination (12.2013 – 12.2014)

Numerous conferences and seminars

140 municipalities covered by comprehensive training sessions

700 smaller municipalities covered by counselling services (altogether ca. 1/3 of municipalities in Poland had some sort of contact with the Model)

Continuation of lobbing (incl. the key Ministers and MPs):

The Model (Ministry’s official guidelines for homeless services)

The legal recommendations (2020 timeframe)

The strategy (National Programmes)

The EU Funds (incl. housing-led solutions)

Growing awareness of the need of replacing the traditional intervention and shelter based system with a modern one based on individual housing solutions and emphasising prevention and reintegration of homeless people

Thank you for your attention

Jakub Wilczek – St. Brother Albert’s Aid Society jakub.wilczek@tpba.pl