Managing Anti-Social Behaviour At The Root

We should all have the right to feel safe and at ease in our own homes. At the end of the day our homes are our sanctuary, and a sense of safety and security is essential to helping us feel stable and secure.

Ongoing anti-social behaviour from co-residents or neighbours can have a negative impact on people’s lives, particularly if they are trying to recover from past traumas or bad experiences.

I am pleased to say that incidences of anti-social behaviour (ASB) affecting Sustain’s residents are relatively rare, but this is because we follow a strict policy of early intervention, and nip ASB in the bud.

In particular we are committed to updating our knowledge of ASB and applying best practice in dealing with it and related safety issues.

So that we can continue to improve our response, Sustain is now a member of RESOLVE, the organisation that helps housing providers, local authorities, housing law solicitors, the police and others deal effectively with community safety and ASB issues through training, support, guidance and the sharing of best practice.

All Sustain staff now have access to this support, which includes training on how to quickly identify anti-social behaviour, promoting early intervention steps and actions such as legal injunctions and court orders.

This will help Sustain people to keep improving their work with our housing providers and tenants in dealing quickly and confidently with any signs of anti-social behaviour.

Sustain’s membership of RESOLVE is a crucial step in our commitment to proactively addressing the issue of ASB.

With RESOLVE research showing that almost one in seven people have had to consider moving home because of the impact of anti-social behaviour, we know this is a significant issue. At Sustain we deal with it early and effectively to prevent neighbourhoods from being affected.

We view even one issue as one too many. Thanks to daily support visits to our tenants, our team can spot early signs of ASB and help stop these from developing. This is why cases are low at Sustain, and evictions very rare. Although eviction is a possibility, this is the last straw, and one we always work to avoid.

Ultimately, we want our tenants and their communities to have confidence in the way we deal with any issues, by doing our best to help people feel safe and supported in their homes.

Find out more about the work of RESOLVE at Anti Social Behaviour – Community Safety – Resolve (resolveuk.org.uk)