Not everyone is familiar with the role of community safety in housing. But while we work in the background, we play a key part in supporting residents to feel safe both at home and in their neighbourhood.
Domestic abuse is a serious issue, one that often goes under-reported and, in many cases, undetected.
Not everyone is familiar with the role of community safety in housing. But while we work in the background, we play a key part in supporting residents to feel safe both at home and in their neighbourhood.
Our Community Safety team are here to support our customers experiencing domestic abuse and have received specialist training to help keep people safe at home. We work with a range of partners, including the police and local authorities, to find the best solution for those involved.
Simona De Sio, Community Safety Officer shares a heart-warming recent success story, this White Ribbon Day:
Initial success
A customer of ours disclosed historical physical abuse from her then ex-partner and then more recently psychological abuse and controlling behaviour from him. At the time the alleged perpetrator (AP) was a joint tenant on their flat. He agreed to pass the tenancy to her upon leaving, following their relationship breaking down which initially seemed like a success.
Further action needed
However, the property was very close to the town in which he had grown up. This meant she would often see his family and friends when out and about locally.
This had a very detrimental effect on her mental health. She developed acrophobia and rarely left her flat. Our tenant started to get help from community mental health and her GP for her mental health as she later diagnosed with PTSD as well as her on-going depression and anxiety.
Despite the challenges she was facing, she enrolled into university and began studying. Sadly, her acrophobia meant she was finding it very hard to leave her flat to travel to Uni.
As a result, with the support of our housing management team, I was able to put a move report together for allocations to consider, so that she could move closer to Uni. This would mean she would be far away from her ex-partner, and could freely travel to university and be closer to friends she was making around the Southampton area. I gathered supportive evidence from her GP and Community Mental Health support worker to support the move. Two weeks later, she was approved for a new home for her and her dogs to live away from fear of her ex-partner.
A heart-warming result
When I spoke to her last month, she was so overjoyed that she would be moving that she told me she cried when she got the news she had been matched with a flat. She had already started packing and looking forward to her new life.
She was so grateful for the work and support that had been given to her and stated she could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Moving forward her mental health support will be transferred to her new area, and, as she will remain a customer of Abri, I will be following up with her when she moves and offering some security on her property for peace of mind. She was very grateful for this.
This was a case that I personally felt so pleased had ended so positively and with the support from management, allocations and the housing officer also, we are able to provide her with a brand-new life and fresh start. What a good news story!
- Simona De Sio
Community safety officer (Rother)