Temporary Accommodation Support Service (TASS)
TASS
TASS, working with Portsmouth City Council, can provide you with temporary self-contained accommodation if you are homeless or unable to live in your permanent home. To be eligible for the Temporary Accommodation Support Service you must apply as homeless to Housing Options, Portsmouth City Council where your individual circumstances will be looked at by a Housing Options Officer. You will then be told if you are able to access the service. We understand losing your home is life changing, we will be there to help you settle into temporary accommodation and will be around to support you through a difficult time.
Advice and Support Services
We will work with you to manage your accommodation and offer advice on issues such as benefits, budgeting, finding a local GP and a dentist. You will be allocated a key worker who will help identify what support you need and work on an action plan with you. Our key workers know your stay with us may be short, so will work with you to address the issues which are a priority to you and your future housing.
The TASS properties are for families of all sizes and also for single people, we have two properties adapted for disabilities. We work with Portsmouth City Council and other professionals to make sure you have access to a whole range of services, we want you to be independent and to move forward positively towards a more settled home.
The Temporary Accommodation Support Service (TASS) supports homeless families and single people living in temporary accommodation across Portsmouth this includes 34 fully furnished properties and a shared house with 11 bedrooms. All TASS families are referred via Portsmouth City Council and on their behalf, we support clients on their journey through a difficult and anxious time to enable them to move forward to sustain their own tenancy in the future. Each family member is supported and the centre offers additional services to children and young people.
From April 2022 –March 2023 the service accommodated and supported 116 families/single vulnerable people.
“I can’t really express in words what a difference it made. This is a really great service. Instead of my daughter and I spending Christmas in a bedsit, we had a nice flat where my son could also visit us and we were supported by some amazing people.”
“TASS was somewhere to stay with support which prepared me to manage my own home.
TASS gave me and my family a roof over our heads, we would have been homeless without it.
Amazing service - glad to work with the Roberts Centre, got great support which I wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere.
When we moved out our keyworker visited us in our new accommodation to make sure all was ok. Great support even after leaving TASS.”
Everything you need
When you move into a TASS property there will be everything you need, fully furnished and equipped. You will have a Licence Agreement with the council to occupy the property and a Contract of Expectations with the Roberts Centre which explains what you can and cannot do. When the TASS team welcome you into the property, they will explain everything to you and you can ask questions and share any worries you may have.
The TASS team are responsible for the Housing Management of the properties so they will visit to carry out property checks and make sure any maintenance is completed quickly. You will soon get to know our friendly team and your own key worker will provide one to one support for you and your family.
Families who live in TASS properties can access a free nursery place in the Roberts Centre Nursery for any child under 5 years and during school holidays there is a play scheme held at the Roberts Centre for 5 to 13 year olds which is also free, children can have lots of fun with a time table full of activities and outings.