Anti-Social Behaviour
Leeds Tenants Federation recognises
that anti-social behaviour is currently the most pressing issue for tenants and
residents.
We will put our resources
into helping tenants and residents to give evidence against perpetrators of
anti-social behaviour (ASB).
We will provide training to
help residents understand the legal processes for dealing with anti-social
behaviour; to help them fill in nuisance diaries and to encourage them to act
as witnesses. We will promote the Taking a Stand Award and give publicity to
people and groups who have stood up against ASB.
We want to see effective and
fast action taken to deal with anti-social behaviour. In particular we will
press for increased accountability within landlords and the ASB Unit.
Complainants should be given a named officer whose responsibility is to pursue
the case and keep the complainant updated.
Priority must be given to ensuring that complainants are kept informed,
are aware of the processes and are kept safe and supported throughout the case.
We believe that the balance
of resources needs to be shifted towards preventative action rather than
enforcement. We want to see more work with families and young people to deal
with problem behaviour before it
becomes so serious that there is not alternative but enforcement action.
Too often the legal
enforcement options like eviction or ASB Orders, simply cause the problem to be
moved into a different tenure or a different neighbourhood. We would like to
see more work with perpetrators to correct their behaviour avoiding the need to
implement final sanctions.
We will challenge the view
that anti-social action is predominantly caused by young people and we will
support and promote activities for young people, and projects that aim to build
bridges between age groups. We believe
that young people are often discriminated against by housing organisations and
other agencies and that their needs are often ignored or understated. We believe that housing providers should
make sure they are aware of the needs of young people and be able to
offer a range of support options to enable young people to live
independently.
We support the use of
neighbourhood wardens and believe they have a very positive impact on people’s
feelings of security. We believe that
they can provide a valuable service as witnesses to anti-social behaviour and
should be seen as a valuable resource in the building of sustainable
communities.