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Cleveland Housing Advice Centre (CHAC) is a charity dedicated to assisting residents living in Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar & Cleveland, Hartlepool, Darlington and beyond with any issues they may face with Welfare Benefits, Housing and Debt. This includes supporting them with making and managing benefit claims, challenging decisions, dealing with disrepair, evictions, landlord disputes and supporting them on the path to being debt free.
CHAC’s impact is significant to not only the individual client, but also their families, dependants and to the wider community. Since we started in 1990 we have helped 295,000 people and secured more than £110 Million in unclaimed benefits and other entitlements for our clients.
This has resulted in a significant reduction of anxiety and stress, an improved standard of living for the recipients as well as their family, as well as a substantial positive impact on their community i.e. through bills and rent being paid, homes being maintained, spending in the local economy, etc.
The overall effect of this results in more jobs being created and sustained which in turn benefits both our clients and our local area. Without our help this money would have remained unclaimed, and the local community would have missed out on this extra spending.
We collect feedback from clients who access our service and this tells us that 97% of our clients would recommend CHAC to others, 60% say that our advice reduced their social isolation or improved their quality of life, and 40% said it impacted positively in their physical and/or mental health.
All of our services are free. We have a main office in central Middlesbrough and also deliver advice sessions from several different Hubs around the area, to ensure easy access to our services. We can also provide home visits for clients who are unable to attend either the Hubs or our main office, as well as providing advice by telephone and email if suitable.
We are part of the Middlesbrough Advice Partnership which helps provide advice and support throughout the Middlesbrough area via various community hubs. We are also affiliated with Community Money Advice who provide us with support and assistance in delivering our debt advice project.
Because our services are provided free of charge we must thank our generous funders whose backing allows us to carry on delivering our services year after year. Our Annual Report linked below provides a full list of all the funders who have helped us in recent years. We offer our sincerest thanks for their kind support.
More than 33 years ago, a man called Michael Cunningham saw that within the community he lived, there was poverty. He saw a number of reasons for it and decided to help people “get back on their feet.” He rented an old building for a peppercorn rent and set about advising people how they could
get help.
He judged nobody preferring to get them out of the situation rather than dwelling on the problem. He
needed more advisors, so He asked for Volunteers and when approached by the local prison, saw no reason why prisoners on day release, could not give back to the community by learning and then
giving advice. Pretty soon local employment agencies asked him to take on people and train them and he was happy to do so.
The advice they gave to people had to be free as most of their clients were in desperate straits and could not afford to pay. The Volunteers worked for free so to cover outlay of the building and utilities he started selling second hand furniture to those in need and charged a fraction extra to cover bills.
(Most of it was donated free and He had a very understanding Landlord).
Being a man of infinite patience Mick realised that some of the “Volunteers” that were sent to him had never worked before and found it difficult to adapt to working life. They would not turn up or would turn up late, but he believed they would come good in the end, and most of them did as they grew to
believe in Chac as much as he did.
The numbers of people asking for help built up and unfortunately today the need has not reduced, despite more than 240,000 people walking through Chac’s door.
Chac continues today with the same principles. They no longer sell furniture, but still operate from the same building. Their advice is free from making the first assessment through to representing Clients at Tribunals or County Courts should this be necessary.
Sadly, Michael is no longer with us but his legacy lives on. Chac now has salaried staff as well as Volunteers, still works with day release prisoners and takes on people who are experiencing difficulties. The Staff are highly trained in giving welfare advice and more recently specialised debt advice. As well as operating from their office, which is in the centre of Middlesbrough, they also
operate 14 community hubs to advise people who would struggle to travel to the office. Bed or house-bound clients are seen by their outreach service which operates 5 days a week for those in need. Two days a week they offer drop-in sessions.
The Staff are highly motivated and worked throughout lockdown, using telephones and computers to work from home. They see people who cannot see a way out of debt and have little understanding of how to do so. The first thing they do is assess if they are getting all to which they are entitled. “We have seen people at risk of losing their home because of rent or mortgage arrears who did not
realise they were entitled to housing benefit, pension credit or disability allowance.” They don’t turn anyone away. If they can’t help you they will try to direct you to someone who can.
Chac’s goal is not only to help its beneficiaries but to help get people back into employment, who would otherwise struggle. People who have suffered challenging times themselves better understand the problems faced by those who are suffering now.
Empowering Prisoners and ex-Offenders to give back to the community gives them self – worth, which motivates them to progress away from crime. Chac has seen massive successes with this project.
Chac Staff and Volunteers work together closely, this ensures all safety measures are met as we take the health and safety of our staff and volunteers very seriously.
Once the programme ends for our volunteers, we encourage them to move on to either paid employment or further education, though they are quite welcome to stay with us until they are ready to do so. Once they get a taste of controlling their own futures, they usually cannot wait to start their journey. We see previous volunteers who pop in now and again and update us on their recent progress.
We are open to adaptations and constantly update our procedures to fit in with a changing environment, whilst still retaining our old ethos that everybody can help somebody.
A donation for £5000 will help 250 people in our community to reduce or remove their debt, receive what they are entitle to and improve living conditions.
CHAC’s impact is significant to both the individual client, their families, and dependents, and to the wider community. We have helped secure millions of pounds in unclaimed entitlements for our clients. This has resulted in a significant reduction of worry and fear, an improved standard of living for the
recipient and a substantial impact on their community i.e. bills being paid, rent being paid, homes being maintained, revenue to local shops etc. The overall effect of this results in jobs being created which in turn benefits both the beneficiary and the local community. This money would have remained unclaimed and therefore lost to the community.