Elim Housing have been delighted to celebrate the success of their support housing team at Taylor House who have been shortlisted as finalists in two awards, the Housing Heroes Awards (Team of the Year) and The Housing with Care Awards (Independent Housing Team).
Located in Matson, Gloucester, Taylor House provides 34 short term housing spaces and accommodation-based support for homeless single people and couples with complex, multiple and high level support needs, aged 18+.
The team of passionate support workers work closely with residents, enabling progress towards more independent living in the future in an inclusive, high quality support service. During their stay, residents are encouraged and supported in preparing for volunteering, training, education or employment. Community links play a key part in the team’s success, and they have built extensive local partnerships that offer residents opportunities for health initiatives, development and financial support.
The Team have created a unique and inclusive service for residents at Taylor House, and throughout 2022/2023 there have been 16 positive move ons, and a further 8 pending for this last quarter. This comprises of 60% of residents who have lived at Taylor in 2022/2023. Some residents will have had several failed attempts in their journey with different agencies and organisations before reaching Taylor, and their eventual successful move into independent housing often represents a transformation during their time at Taylor House.
Resident Mathew shares his views on his time with Elim so far: “I heard about Elim through The START team at Gloucester City Council. I had tried supported housing before, quite a few times actually but I kept getting kicked out as I was considered high risk because of my substance misuse. I don’t think many people would have me!
I didn’t have high hopes coming to Elim, I thought it wouldn’t be any different to the other places I lived before. But it was, and I’m so glad I came.
It’s had a massive impact, it’s life changing! I’ve gone from nobody wanting to give me a place to sleep or give me a second chance, to doing all these new things and being able to stay clean. It’s the longest I’ve been clean in a long time and it’s because of Elim helping me.”
Speaking on behalf of Elim Housing Association, Chief Executive Paul Smith said: “The team have worked incredibly hard over the last 12 months to create the best service for its residents and have supported each other to the fullest whilst doing so. The Taylor House team may be small but the impact they achieve is far greater than the sum of its parts. Recognition for this, through the shortlisting for these awards, is fully deserved.”
