Addressing Anti-Social Behaviour: Evidence-Based Recommendations For Goldacre Housing Association

Introduction to Goldacre Housing Association

Housing associations have remained commited to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). Housing associations use several mechanisms such as prevention of ASB, supporting victims of ASB, and enforcing good behaviours amiong the tenants. Just like any other housing associastions, Goldacre Housing Association have realised that ASB hinders its ability to attract new tenants hence a negative impact on its revenue genaralisation. Within the purview of housing management services fall rent collection and maximisation, dealing with repairs and maintenance, dealing with anti-social behaviour and providing assistance in every arena of real estate (Lam, 2008, p. 226). Anti Social behaviours also affect Goldacre Housing Association’s dedication to provide safe and secure housing services such as buying, selling, renovating and mordernising houses. Recently, the housing association has been experiencing issues related to the ineffective measure of addressing anti-social behaviour which has dissatisfied the residents and the empty and boarded flats that have declined the attractiveness of the sector. The aim of this paper is to address these elements of the housing management services by providing evidence-based recommendation and constructing SMART plan for the same. The summary should also very briefly outline the key actions you intend to take

The Goldacre Housing have over the years put in place several intiative to handle anti social behaviours. With the introduction of new sanctions and powers, the associyion has a responsibility to protect its clients from ASB. The association provide a wide range of community saftety, regenerations initiatives and housing management as aa way of protecting its tenants. However, this the arising compaints from tenants about ASB in the locality, associstion ought to come up with effective approach to ASB to address the issues  suggested below.

One of the first issues facing the housing association  that the residents are dissatisfied with the ways the anti-social behaviour in the area is addressed. This implies that the ways in which the anti-social behaviours are addressed are ineffective. By anti-social behaviour, it implies the activities that cause harm and dissatisfaction for the common people that include from dropping litter to serious forms of harassment. However, anti-social behaviour also includes excessive noise, selling and using drugs, verbal abuse, harassment (racist or homophobic incidents), and intimidation, dropping litter, vandalism and nuisance from vehicles (Donoghue, 2010, p. 114). These behaviours have serious incidences of fear and stress among the residents due to their safety status and adversely affecting their quality of life.

Second, Setting up a compliant sell for te residents to report ASB cases has not been enouight for Goldacre housing association to effectively address the had addressed the anti-social behaviour. However, this measure has been ineffective considering the prevelant of the anti-social behaviours in the neighbourhood. This suffices to the explanation of the unattractiveness of the houses owned by the association to the potential customers.

The Negative Impacts of Anti-Social Behaviour on Revenue and Tenant Attraction

One of the first actions that could be undertaken by the Goldacre housing association is a set up of a Community Justice Centres that aims to deliver less impersonal and more responsive court services to not only punish the offenders but also collaborate and work with other services to prevent the anti-social behaviour inflicting criminal activities. The Community Justice Centres (CJC) helps to settle disputes and misunderstnging between neighbours, family members and workmates. The role of the centres would also be to repair the damage that has been caused by the criminals (Donoghue, 2010, p. 121). For example, the deployment of theNorth Liverpool Community Justice centre (NLCJC) in North Liverpool helped the landlords and the housing associations work to address the issue of anti-social behaviour (Robins, 2012). The establishment of the CJC in collaboration  with the magistrates’ court and Crown courts will help in dealing with low-level of crimes and anti-social behaviour such as vandalism, petty theft, graffiti and drink and disorderly behaviour (Morton, 2004).

The second action to be undertaken by the landlord and Goldacre housing association to address the issue of anti-social behaviour is setting up Community Warden Schemes which can comprise of some trained wardens who are accredited with national Community Safety Scheme to report anti-social behaviour and also be responsible for taking appropriate action to resolve the issue (Brown, 2012). For example, in Hastings, a council had been developed which helps the landlords in the area to engage in a warden scheme. The warden group is to appoint comprising of five community wardens, four park rangers, 11 street wardens and three dog wardens to offer roving services to the area. The purpose of this scheme is to build community cohesion and detect and reduce anti-social behaviour (Pevensey Bay Life, 2017).

Besides maintained normace in the residential areas, the trained wardens will keep contant patrols in the resident to ensure that vandalists have no access to the empty houses. Morevover, the warden will mount CCTV system in the area which is an effective way of enhancing safety of the tenants. Residents have reported cases where vandalized have broke int their cars while in the parking lot. Therefore, the park rangers will keep patrol in the parking lot. Lastly, cases of drug abuse have been reported. Prior investigations have shown that drug peddlers use abandoned and empty houses to sell and use drugs. The dog wardens will use sniffer dogs to identify areas where drug abuse is prevalent (Donoghue, 2010, p. 131).

Expert Recommendations for Addressing Anti-Social Behaviour

The empty and boarded flats that have remained  empty for long are susceptible to anti-social activities and risk of mishaps. However, the housing association has not put sufficient mechanisms in place to address the ASB issues that arise from the empty house. Therefore, Goldacre housing association along with the landlords in the area could take actions to address the challenge of empty and boarded flats to increase the attractiveness of the real estate sector.

The first action that could be undertaken is the Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) which can be applied under circumstances when a property owner leaves the property with no immediate intention to secure voluntary reoccupation. The EDMO was intrdiuced by the Labour government in the UK and it allow the local council to take control of disused properties. EDMO allow the council to take charge by maintain both the propoert and the safety on the people living nearby. During the ownership period, the local council will work with the housing association on ways of making the houses habitable hence bring them back into house (Derby City Council, 2015). In collaboration with the local council, the housing association will then embark on developing strategies to cuerb the ASB that made the house previously non-habitated (Wilson, 2016). For example, the Derby council had been working with the housing associations to deal with the issue of empty homes by setting up plan to make the house habitable again. The housing associations Empty also link with the Housing Options Centre and has deployed the Derby Homefinder scheme to address the problem of empty housing (Derby City Council , 2015). Just as in the Derby County, EDMO can bring success to the Goldcare housing association.

The second action that could be taken by the landlords and Goldacre housing association is to report the prevalence of the empty homes in the vicinity. It is then the duty of the housing association to encourage the neighbouring home dwellers to mass report the empty homes in the area. This would create a local pressure on the housing department and then they could set up a pressure group and collaborate with Compulsory Purchase Orders to fast-track the procedure to reoccupy the empty homes (Norwood, 2011). For example, In case of the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the local authorities are informed by the residents and local landlords to address the issue of empty houses. The local authorities raised the Council Tax on empty homes and facilitated the compulsory purchase properties to deal with the issue.

Action	Target	Date	Responsible
Setting up Community Justice Centre	Aimed at addressing the ASB and other misunderstanding between tenants. Teaching the tenants on issues that constitute ASB and how best to address them.	June 2018	The housing association management in collaboration with magistrates’ and Crown courts
Implementing Community Warden schemes	Establish a warden station at the entrance of the housing project.	July 2018	Head of Security
Collaborating with Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO)	Reduce the incidents that would occur as a result of empty flats. Ensure that the houses have been  maintained	July- August 2018	The management
Increasing Council Tax on empty houses and implementing Compulsory Purchase Orders	Ensure the housing associations have put flexible mechanisms in place to handle ASB	Septermber 2018	Law Council

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the housing sector is vulnerable to different types of social, economic and political challenges. However, it is the role of the housing management services to deal with these issues and provide better housing solution. Goldacre housing association aims to provide housing solutions however with residents’ dissatisfaction with the way the anti-social behaviour is addressed and the existence of empty and boarded houses have complicated the working of the housing sector. Hence, four actions have been recommended to address the issues such as setting community justice centre, implementing community warden schemes, empty dwelling management order and compulsory purchase order.

References List

Brown, D. M., 2012. Out on patrol: Maintaining the strengths and addressing the weaknesses of Scotland’s Community Warden Scheme. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 14(4), pp. 258-277.

Derby City Council , 2015. Private Sector Empty Homes Strategy 2015 – 2020, s.l.: Derby City Council .

Donoghue, J., 2010. Anti-Social Behaviour, Community Expectations and the Judicial Role in England and Wales. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Lam, T. Y., 2008. Optimisation of performance management for housing services. Journal of Facilities Management, 6(3), pp. 226-240.

Morton, J., 2004. New Community Justice Centre in England. [Online] Available at: https://www.justiciarestaurativa.org/mount/www.restorativejustice.org/editions/2004/December/liverpool[Accessed 22 May 2018].

Norwood, G., 2011. Compulsory purchase order threat to tackle problem of empty homes. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/oct/08/compulsory-purchase-cornwall-empty-homes[Accessed 22 May 2018].

Pevensey Bay Life, 2017. Expanded community warden scheme aims to tackle business crime. [Online] Available at: https://www.pevenseybaylife.co.uk/expanded-community-warden-scheme-aims-to-tackle-business-crime/[Accessed 22 May 2018].

Robins, J., 2012. Community justice centres are bold and radical. But do they work? , London, UK: The Guardian.

Wilson, W., 2016. Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs), s.l.: House of Commons Library.