The Kimberleys, a recovered estate
26 Oct 2007 - Take one estate, throw in drug trafficking, gang culture, associated ASB, add a good helping of Unity Housing, and read on for what happens next
Take one estate, throw in drug trafficking, gang culture, firearms, associated crime and ASB. Then, mix the old and new of the local community with a good helping of Unity Housing Association, season with passion and joint working, and "cook" for nearly a year. Finally, take out "The Kimberleys", a recovered community.
Unity Housing provides over 1000 homes to over 1800 tenants. 49 of those homes are on the Kimberley Estate, a new build development in 1994, nestled between Harehills and East End Park, two deprived areas of inner city Leeds.
By 2006, this estate had spiralled into decline. Economic deprivation, high levels of single parent families with a lack of positive male role models, poor parenting skills, and many young people on the estate (some as young as 10) had been recruited into drug dealing and the associated gang culture, crime and ASB. Other tenants were being forced out by means of intimidation so that their empty homes and gardens could be used to store drugs. Queues of up to 30 people could be found awaiting a delivery, whilst Unity staff regularly discovered wraps of drugs during estate visits and on one occasion, a bag of bullets. Eventually the only people who were prepared to venture to the estate, were those who were exacerbating the problem.
The project aimed to remove the drug threat and establish a safe community.
At Unity, we're committed to building strong sustainable neighbourhoods through the provision of high quality housing, and social and employment opportunities. We all believe in this; we lived and proved it through our work on this estate.
By the summer of 2006, the Kimberley estate was clearly out of control. On the worst street in the estate, Kimberley Place, 8 out of 19 properties were void and legal action was being taken to evict 3 other households. This was worsened by the estate's geographical placement. It continually fell into a hole when funding was being allocated, being on the periphery of Harehills and East End Park, and there remained a noticeable lack of community centres and health provision within the area.
Those refusing to join the drug trafficking but whom would not or could not relocate, were understandably reluctant to step forward to work with the authorities; nor were residents even willing to form a resident group to talk to each other. No confidence, no witness statements, no evidence, no results. Attempts were continually made by tenant participation officers to engage with the community but we needed a more original, holistic approach to build the relationships within the area, and tackle the problem as a community.
A lot of time was invested in communication in order to build trust and respect. Tenants would not phone the police, but eventually they would phone us. We would make statements anonymous, but would collate these and pass them onto the police. This in turn built intelligence and established patterns about the drug trade which allowed police to be more effective. We invested £5,000 in additional security, and, importantly, cctv in the area in order to gather further evidence.
Eventually tenants started to communicate directly with police, and Unity funded additional police resources for two specific operations in the area. This led to two key families involved in the drugs trade being evicted, and two injunctions being served on two teenagers who had been persistently returning to the estate that they grew up in to deal heroin and crack cocaine. The injunctions banned the teenagers from the area for 3 and 5 years and were publicised to residents in newsletters, flyers and the local newspaper, increasing confidence and helping to police the injunctions. We had never previously achieved such tangible results from collaborative working and our staff team benefitted from seeing firsthand the results of an innovative, joined up approach.
Regeneration could now grow from security. Real housing strategies could be applied.
The core problem had been removed and the remaining tenants were relieved. No one could doubt they now had a much improved service. However, in reality a legacy remained, properties lay vacant and we needed to do more. We knew the residents wanted an area where they could meet for positive activities and rebuild their community. Unity joined forces with Bovis, a private company who were looking for a charitable enterprise to fulfil their corporate responsibility objectives. Bovis supplied willing hands and funds to decorate and carpet a void property, and Unity installed a new kitchen and additional security. The cumulative added value was standing in front of us in the form of a community house. But was there a community to use it?
To stabilise the area, we needed new residents who were in housing need and were willing to take a chance in a new area, but would pull together as families and as a community if problems arose again. In an innovative move, Unity sent a publicity flyer to 18 refugee organisations in the city, asking for referrals of families who were being housed poorly elsewhere, and needed the larger homes that we had vacant on the Kimberley Estate. We were inundated with replies. We were honest about the problems the estate had lived with, but also about the work we had done to improve the area. Tenants whom we felt would establish a sustainable community were carefully selected, incentives were provided to encourage families to move into the area, and burglar alarms were fitted as standard.
A large response came from the Somali community and so it seemed fitting that we contact a Somalian community group to man the community house. In the summer of 2007, the community house will be managed by the Iftian Welfare Association (Iftian is Somali for "light") and will be run as a shared space for all those in the community, and as a meeting space for positive activity. Work has already started on positive community activities like a summer play scheme, a mosaic project to be designed by the estate's children and a community art project to design a new pedestrian entrance to Kimberley Place.
Local environmental charity Groundwork Leeds carried out a community consultation with Kimberley Place residents in May 2007. Contractors will be on site this summer with new fencing and landscaping to soften the look of the estate and flatter the high-quality housing. By investing £10,000 in the works, Unity has attracted match ERDF funding of £5,000. Residents have been inspired by this to form a committee to carry out future fundraising activities for positive activities for their community.
Progress has outstripped the initial expectations of old and new community members and ourselves. At the time of writing, Kimberley Place is fully occupied.
In may 2008, TPAS cited our work on the Kimberleys as a source of good practice.
