Social care improvement plan: focus on access

Municipality of Heerlen and the cooperation partners of the Parkstad social shelter made an improvement plan to improve the reception of homeless people. We have Map the need for guidance for each person. This way we improve access to social care and strengthen the flow and outflow. We are also gaining a better understanding of what shelter is needed.
 

As the center municipality, Heerlen is responsible for providing social relief in Parkstad. To this end, we cooperate with various parties, such as Levanto, Salvation Army and Credohuis Parkstad. They offer a wide range of reception options. Such as general shelter, shelter for care avoiders, youth shelter, small-scale youth shelter, mother-child shelter and women's shelter.

Research and bottlenecks 

In 2020, Heerlen set about improving the quality of care in Parkstad. This provided better quality housing: no more dormitories, but private rooms for clients. The goal was less nuisance, faster recovery and quicker progression to independent living. For example, the Day and Night Shelter (DNO) was moved from De Klomp to Het Gasthuis and the youth shelter from Mijnzicht to Putgraaf. We also have ordinary housing throughout Parkstad that we use for homeless people who are self-sufficient. With these improvements, we have provided high-quality shelter. 

Yet we still see bottlenecks in the shelter, such as the lack of a flexible shell of shelters, a (nationwide) rising demand for beds and the stagnation of client outflow due to an increasing shortage of independent housing. These bottlenecks prompted an in-depth investigation into improvements.

Results and approach

In the study we see that we are leading the way in the way of realizing housing. To a large extent, this meets the needs of our clients and there is less recurrence of criminal behavior. The next step is to get an even sharper picture of the different target groups that use shelter. By looking at shelters individually, we can provide customized services and match our offerings even better to demand.

To deal with (immediate) bottlenecks, we are committed to the following:

  • Municipality will work with shelter providers, determine counseling needs when someone reports for shelter;
  • Temporary housing as needed;
  • Deploy even more specialized mental health expertise to better assist people with mental vulnerability with misunderstood behaviors;
  • The possibility of mental support for clients;
  • The conversion of shelter location Heugderlicht into Shelter 045 in Landgraaf, freeing up 12 additional beds.

Funding for shelter providers remains the same. They receive money with a lump-sum subsidy to perform their duties. 

We are proud of the quality of social care in Parkstad. But we do not sit back. We are responding to social developments. More and more people are in trouble and need help. With our cooperation partners we continue to develop the shelter in order to continue to provide good Health in Parkstad.