Strengthening Housing Support for People Affected by Substance Misuse
By Jo Horgan, Workforce Development & Training Lead at Essex Recovery Foundation
“At Essex Recovery Foundation, we know that recovery is about more than stopping substance use.
Safe, secure housing plays a huge role in helping people build stability, confidence and a future they can feel hopeful about. Without somewhere safe to live, recovery becomes much harder to sustain.
That’s why, over the past year, we’ve been working behind the scenes on an important piece of work to strengthen housing support across the drug and alcohol sector in Essex.
Listening first: the 2025 needs assessment
In 2025, we worked in partnership with TONIC to carry out a housing training needs assessment with professionals working across drug and alcohol services in Essex, as well as people currently accessing drug and alcohol treatment.
The aim was simple: to understand where staff felt confident supporting people with housing and where gaps existed.
What we heard was clear: frontline workers are often supporting people who are homeless, at risk of losing their accommodation or struggling to navigate complex housing systems. While staff are deeply committed to helping… housing law, entitlements, and local pathways can be difficult to keep up with, especially when they vary from district to district.
Housing support was also consistently raised as a priority through wider partnership processes, reinforcing the need for focused and practical training in this area.
This assessment gave us a clear picture of what was needed to better equip services to support people affected by substance misuse with their housing needs.
Turning insight into action
Rather than letting that learning sit on a shelf, this work was commissioned by Essex County Council in response to the identified training need. A proposal to develop a dedicated housing training programme was put out to tender and Sanctus were successful in securing the contract.
Sanctus have designed the programme in line with the needs identified through the assessment, working closely with us to ensure it reflects both frontline realities and the wider recovery system in Essex.
Starting in January 2026, Sanctus will be delivering a new housing training programme for staff across the Essex Drug and Alcohol Partnership:
“Understanding Housing: Supporting People Affected by Substance Misuse with Housing.”
The programme will be delivered through a series of interactive workshops across all four quadrants of Essex, ensuring staff from different areas can access training that reflects both national guidance and local housing systems.
What the training will cover
The training is designed to give frontline workers the confidence and knowledge to support people more effectively with housing issues, including:
Understanding district-level and national housing legislation
Clearer knowledge of housing rights, entitlements, and local pathways
Increased confidence in helping people navigate housing systems
Practical skills to integrate housing support into addiction and recovery work
Participants will also receive supporting resources, including key contacts, referral routes and guidance they can use day-to-day.
Alongside the training, Sanctus will facilitate a Community of Practice, bringing together professionals from housing and drug and alcohol services. This space will support relationship-building across sectors, provide opportunities to talk through challenges, share information and develop more effective joint working practices that ultimately benefit people in recovery.
Why this matters to people in recovery
If you’re in recovery - or supporting someone who is - this work matters to you.
Housing issues are one of the biggest barriers people face when trying to move forward with their lives. By investing in training for professionals, we are helping ensure that people affected by substance misuse are met by workers who understand the system, know the right questions to ask and can offer informed, compassionate support.
This programme is about improving the chances that when someone asks for help with housing, they’re not met with confusion or dead ends - but with clearer pathways and stronger advocacy.
Our commitment
At Essex Recovery Foundation, we are committed to tackling the wider issues that affect recovery, even when that work happens quietly behind the scenes. This training programme is one example of how we continue to listen, learn and act to improve support for people affected by substance misuse across Essex.
We’re proud to be working with Sanctus on this programme and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have for staff – and, most importantly, for people on their recovery journeys”
Jo Horgan
Workforce Development & Training Lead at Essex Recovery Foundation