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drinkanddrugsnews
| May 2014
Profile |
Ron Dougan
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
‘I
think it’s starting to change,’ says Trent and Dove Housing chief executive
Ron Dougan on the reluctance of some social housing providers to take
on tenants with addiction issues. ‘There are really good housing
associations who invest – both in terms of time and staffing resource –
to help people who’ve gone through the recovery process.’
He’s been head of the Burton-upon-Trent-based organisation since it was
established in 2001 to take on the transfer of more than 5,500 properties from
East Staffordshire Borough Council, where he served as director of housing.
A 30-year veteran of the sector – he helped set up a residents’ association while
a council tenant in Liverpool, and worked his way up from there – he’s the first to
admit that he had doubts about the client group.
‘I was quite reluctant, to be honest,’ he says. ‘As chief exec of a housing
association you want to make sure that tenants are going to fit into the
community and not cause problems, so I took some convincing. But my own staff
were very keen to convince me.’
The clincher, however, was visiting the nearby BAC O’Connor centre to see for
himself. ‘I spent some time there, and what I saw and heard convinced me
absolutely to work with BAC. It was the right thing to do, and more than ten years
later I’m more convinced than ever.’
While access to decent housing is one of the vital elements of getting people
back on their feet, it’s also something that can be overlooked or under-prioritised.
‘It’s absolutely vital if the great work on recovery is going to be continued,’ he says.
‘If people don’t have decent housing at the end of it then the danger is that they
fall back into the old ways, and you can understand that.’
Giving people a new place to live can also mean they can avoid going back to
old neighbourhoods with their potential problems, pressures and temptations.
‘We’ve got a small independent living team, and when someone goes into BAC
that’s when the relationship starts,’ he says. ‘We work with them right up until the
time they’re ready to move out and during that period we build up a relationship
and discuss all of those sort of issues – where is it best for them not to be, so they
don’t go back into situations that aren’t going to help them. When they come out,
BAC continue to give them support until they no longer need it.’
The partnership with BAC began more than 10 years ago when Trent and Dove’s
independent living team were given the brief to work with ‘any agency that helped
to support tenants or local people with any needs above the norm’. People with
addiction problems were ‘one particular client group that we knew needed extra
support’, he says. ‘They were going into our properties anyway, and some who
hadn’t been through BAC were causing problems on the estates, which isn’t good
for anyone. That’s how it all started.’
The outcomes however, have surprised the organisation. ‘While you might
expect that the tenancies of people coming through with problems – or former
Housing association chief
executive Ron Dougan tells
David Gilliver
about the close
links his organisation has
established with the treatment
sector, and how he’s been
persuading other housing
providers to do the same