Riverside’s John Glenton heads new Homelessness Steering Group

8 Oct 2018 IN Riverside news

Riverside’s John Glenton has been elected Chair of the National Housing Federation’s newly formed Homelessness Steering Group.

The Group aims to bring housing associations together to share best practice and lobby the Government to help end homelessness.

John Glenton, Riverside’s Executive Director for Care and Support, outside The Crossings in Hull
John Glenton, Riverside’s Executive Director for Care and Support, outside The Crossings homeless hostel in Hull.

 

Mr Glenton, Riverside’s Executive Director for Care and Support, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be elected Chair of this new steering group as I’m passionate about ending homelessness. This is a great opportunity for organisations such as my own to collaborate, share best practice and seek government support for strategies that we know work on the ground. Preventing the introduction of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap in supported housing is a prime example of where the sector and NHF worked together to lobby the government to rethink the LHA cap proposals.”

Catherine Ryder, Head of Policy at the National Housing Federation added: “We’re delighted that John Glenton has been elected as the new Chair of our Homelessness Steering Group. It is full of organisations doing excellent work to help solve the problem of homelessness. We hope this Steering Group creates a way for them to share their learnings and inspire change not only with each other, but across the entire sector. I am confident that John will do a brilliant job at leading them.”

The Homelessness Steering Group was set up to work on a voluntary housing association commitment to support Duty to Refer in the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, where public bodies have a duty to refer anyone they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness.  

Mr Glenton added: “Riverside has signed up to the Commitment to Refer, and the Homelessness Steering Group will be formulating ways on how we can increase our impact in preventing and tackling homelessness, which has seen an increase of over 169 per cent in rough sleeping since 2010.

“As one of the country’s largest homelessness providers with services across England, we have substantial experience of working with homeless people for many years.

“I’ve personally worked in front line services for 20 years so I can bring some useful perspectives based on experiences of the challenges to this role.

“In addition to the increase in numbers, front line homelessness workers are facing daily complex challenges supporting the most marginalised people in society.”