Assistance to Housing Independence: Report on the 12 month follow-up of Test Phase tenant participants

Key Results

Pathway to Housing Independence

The “pathway to housing independence” is a model that was developed during the AHI test phase which identified the following stages:

•  motivation to start the journey
•  knowing what is possible and how to get there
•  staying on the journey
•  meeting requirements
•  finding the right house
•  making the move.

In the recent fieldwork tenant participants were asked whether the stages on this pathway represented their experience.

Only two of the 28 tenant participants were not motivated to continue with the journey and had opted out. Of the remaining 26 tenants, all except one indicated they had moved at least to the next position on the pathway, “knowing what is possible and how to get there”.

Six tenant participants had made the move to a new house. Three tenants had downsized to smaller Housing New Zealand properties, one tenant had bought her former Housing New Zealand property, one tenant had moved into a rent-to-buy home, and one tenant had moved to a private rental property.

There was little change in tenant participants’ housing aspirations after 12 months. Of the 15 tenants who aspired to home ownership, two tenants had achieved this. Of the four tenants who aspired to move to a private rental property one tenant had achieved this. Of the seven tenants who were under-utilisers and aspired to move into smaller Housing New Zealand properties three tenants had achieved this. Of the 20 tenant participants who had not achieved their housing aspirations, none were able to estimate the time by which they thought they could move.

Assistance
 The assistance available included education, active1, and financial. Different types of assistance were provided depending on the stage a tenant had reached on the pathway. The provision of assistance varied across regions2. In Hastings most tenants recognised that assistance had been provided. In Auckland only a few, and in Hamilton, few if any, tenants recognised that assistance had been provided. It was unclear why this should be the case in Auckland. In Hamilton this resulted from the only AHI Advisor role becoming vacant shortly after the first contact in late 2010.

 Of those tenant participants who recalled receiving assistance, they rated it as either useful or very useful. Those tenants who had moved homes and received financial assistance with removal costs said the assistance made a big difference to them because the expense was a barrier to them moving.

Tenant participants’ advice, lessons learned and key success factors
Tenant participants were supportive of AHI and would recommend it to others. They would encourage other tenants to:

• start KiwiSaver as soon as possible and do the Welcome Home First Step home education course and the Money Management course
• be “good” tenants
• be careful when they are considering a move to ensure they get a home that meets their needs.

In general the lessons identified in the test phase (October 2010 - February 2011) continue to hold true. The accumulated lessons learned include:

• the scheduling of AHI contact needs to fit around tenants’ daily lives and routines, including in the evenings after work
• AHI Advisors need to follow through with any undertakings made to tenant participants, and also provide periodic follow-up and encouragement to tenants
• staff workloads impact on the appropriateness of attention given to working with tenants, and staff turnover has considerable potential to disrupt and frustrate tenants
• tenants who participate successfully are likely to become advocates for AHI
• NHU staff need more information about home ownership products
• AHI Advisors need to understand what tenants consider to be barriers, and be able to respond accordingly
• a clear Housing Action Plan, which sets out in sufficient detail the key action points, respective responsibilities and timeframes, and provides for regular follow-ups from AHI Advisors, is a useful tool.

The critical factors for the success of the AHI project and roll-out identified in the test phase also continue to be valid. Following the test phase AHI Advisors undertook very minimal follow-up. Despite this lack of interaction with AHI Advisors, tenants maintained or made progress on the pathway to housing independence. The key success factors include:

• staff skills, such as negotiation, relationship management, ability to create rapport, persuasiveness and perseverance, judging the readiness of the tenant, allaying tenant concerns, demonstrating empathy, recognising when to be proactive and the level/type of support a tenant requires
• staff knowledge of the community, state of the local housing market, and of the options available to tenants – including awareness of private or social housing home ownership product providers who could be approached to assist with options
• the approach tailored to the tenants’ housing needs and aspirations
• the incentives package that is available
• the AHI project tools, affordability calculator, Welcome Home Loan, Welcome Home First Step home education course on line (although recognising that tenants may not necessarily be connected to the internet or computer literate), Housing Action Plans, training materials.