CHS‘s Tenancy Support Officer assists our Housing Officers to give additional support when more vulnerable tenants need it.

Ms D has a history of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety. She tends to have paranoid thoughts under the influence of alcohol. When she first moved in to one of our properties, things went well. However, she began drinking and this exacerbated her mental health problems. CHS began to receive reports of anti-social behaviour, sometimes with this tenant as the aggressor, sometimes as the victim. Things came to a head; the police became involved and she received a police caution.

Debbie, our Tenancy Support Officer, met with Ms D to discuss her options.  She was keen to move.  She said that her anxiety and ADHD lead to her reacting impulsively if she feels under threat and whilst we acknowledged that this is her way of standing up for herself when she feels threatened, she could see that at times it had not served her well and had contributed to tension between her and other residents. She identified the layout of the scheme she lives in as contributing to her anxiety as she has to walk past neighbours who have threatened her to get to her flat.

She decided she wanted to move to a scheme with a more open layout.  She also decided that she would manage her anxieties differently in future as her reactions may have caused the situation to escalate.

Debbie supported the tenant to register on Homelink and Homeswapper, as she lacked confidence to do this online.  She wrote a supporting letter to Homelink outlining the anti-social behaviour and how living in the flat was exacerbating the tenant’s mental health issues and made regular visits to support her with bidding on Homelink.

3 months after the support case was opened the tenant was offered a flat in a different village via Homelink. She emailed saying how happy she was with the move:

“Hi Debbie, just to let you know I love it here. Thank you for all you’ve done”