We do all sorts of things to support our residents and the communities we work in
to thrive; from providing financial support, reducing isolation amongst our older residents, helping people find work and or working to find innovative solutions to providing a diverse range of housing and support to the people that need it most.

Case study: Supporting formerly homeless young people in Camden

We transformed a building in Camden in partnership with New Horizon Youth Project to create Project 99. The scheme offers homeless 18-25 year olds a high-quality affordable home and a year of support from New Horizon; covering everything from emotional and mental health support to help with education and employment. This year we celebrated the one year anniversary of the scheme and everything that’s been achieved.

Since the project began, all 13 original residents have been through the programme and moved on to new homes, with three of the young people starting apprenticeships, two going into fulltime jobs and three securing a place in college. 

One of the new residents at Project 99 speaking about his new home said “I feel like this place is one of those rare opportunities; in a corridor full of doors that are the same, this is the golden door that just appears! It gives you an opportunity to get on your feet and know where you're going, I’m really grateful for all the people who are helping me.”

Financial support for our residents

After the introduction of Universal Credit by the government meant we knew that some of our residents would need more support to ensure they could keep paying their rent, manage their finances and remain in their homes.

Our Financial Support Team helped our residents access a total of £434,585.84 in unclaimed benefits to help sustain tenancies and maximise their household income. They also secured £42,000 for residents in back-dated Housing Benefit, Universal Credit and £21,000 in Discretionary Housing Payment awards. This meant we could secure £39,700 in advance rent payments to ensure our residents could maintain their rent accounts, reduce arrears and maintain their
tenancies. Click here to find out more about the financial support we offer!

Our volunteering work to support people and projects

Colleagues from across the organisation volunteered a total of 1,261 hours to support our local communities. Origin encourage each member of staff to spend a day each year volunteering in the communities we work in. Over the past year we've been out to visit our estates to get feedback from residents on what we could do to help improve the areas and communities they live in.

The We Are Ageing Better project has grown significantly with 1,222 older people accessing our services which help tackle loneliness and isolation by bringing people together doing activities they enjoy like trips to the seaside, boccia or visiting landmarks across London. 

Supporting our residents in their homes

We were awarded an Accredited status by the Autism Award Committee from the National Autism Society. Our Speedwell Court scheme received the accreditation as a result of our focus on a person centred approach to care and support for our tenants with Autism and Asperger's.

We installed over 160 aids and adaptations to our residents homes to support them to live their lives to the fullest at home. This includes things like wet rooms, wheel chair ramps or handrails.  

Our 'handy people' have been super busy this year completing over 2000 jobs to improve our residents’ homes.

To find out more about how to  get involved in what we do at Origin, click here.

This is part of our ongoing commitment to providing services that our residents and the communities we work in need most.