Council to investigate landlord offering PS5s to homeless tenants

Birmingham City Council is to investigate a supported housing provider that offered PlayStation 5 consoles, Dyson hair stylers and holidays to homeless people who moved into its properties.

Community Supportive Housing Ltd, based on the Stratford Road in Sparkhill, posted a video on TikTok promising rewards to anyone who stayed with it for four months. The video was deleted after Birmingham Live asked about it.

"For the boys, we have a lovely PS5"

In the video, a man opens the boot of his car and says: "For the boys, we have a lovely PS5. For the ladies, we've got a nice Dyson Airwrap. And for those of you who can't decide, we'll be booking you a holiday worth up to £500, and if you really still can't decide, then we'll give you a gift card worth £500."

When a reporter called the number in the video, the firm's agent said a room was open to "anyone on benefits" who needed somewhere to live, offered to drive them straight to a house in Acocks Green with an empty room, and said they could move in the same day. A support worker would visit once a week.

"Disappointing"

A council spokesperson said: "We do not condone the practice of providing a monetary gift or reward for supported accommodation, and it is disappointing to see. Acceptance of accommodation should not be linked to any monetary gifts or rewards."

The council's specialist team for supported housing "will use its available powers to scrutinise the support provided to individuals housed by Community Supportive Housing", the spokesperson said.

"Rapid and unchecked growth of supported housing has contributed to the loss of thousands of much-needed family homes from the market, as well as antisocial behaviour and crime. Additional powers like a property-based, mandatory licensing scheme are required to control growth of the sector."

Jamie Pearson, chair of the city's Supported Exempt Accommodation Forum, a group of providers set up to promote good practice, called the incentives "very poor" and the kind of thing that gave the sector a bad name.

The firm's sole director, Janzeb Khaliq, declined to speak to Birmingham Live and did not take up its offer of a right of reply.

Why providers compete for tenants

Advertising rooms in exempt accommodation is not illegal. But because providers receive higher housing benefit, often more than £400 a week a room, empty rooms cost them money, and some compete to fill them. Birmingham Live has previously reported rooms advertised as "free" or £10 a week on Gumtree and Facebook.

Local need for supported accommodation is estimated at fewer than 9,000 rooms, yet there are now more than 33,000, many filled by people from elsewhere in the country with little or no connection to Birmingham.

A Department for Work and Pensions partnership manager has said referrals into exempt accommodation should ideally go through the council rather than direct to providers.

The support only has to be "more than minimal" to qualify for the higher benefit, a definition campaigners say is open to exploitation. New national rules have been promised but are not expected to make a practical difference for some time.