Richard Boyd Barrett: Tenant-in-situ limits block homelessness prevention

The tenant in situ sort of situations where it could potentially prevent homelessness are being refused on the basis that the houses are too expensive because there's a limit, so it's just not working because we have the highest house prices in our area. Now, is there anything that can be done about that? Because that means our area is goosed from this point of view. That option to prevent homelessness is not an option. Yeah, I mean, I don't deal with this scheme, but from what I understand, there will be acquisition, there will be limits on the level of acquisitions, so there will be a cost limit. And if the properties in question are high, they may be above the department's limits for acquisitions. In that case, Deputy, as you mentioned, it may be that other interventions are more appropriate, such as the allocation of a social home by the Council. Yeah, but it's one of the key options. And, like, we were actually the area that campaigned for what has now become tenant in situ. We actually proposed it, right? And it's sort of ironic that we're the one area that can't work. And I would just put it to you, you need to consider the accountancy here. You see, just following on from what Rory said, just to, like, spell it out, isn't there a saving... Every single family that is prevented, that has taken off HAP, indeed, is a saving in the long term, even if there's an upfront investment, because you're making over the long term a saving. Because instead of money going out in HAP payments, you will end up with a rent coming into the local authority. Shouldn't that... I mean, does that accountancy have a bearing on this? Well, I mean, I think the policy, the government's policy, is to deliver more new-built social housing and to reduce the reliance on HAP. So, I mean, I think that argument... I'm not disagreeing. The increase of social housing stock will mean there's more housing available to allocate to people and, over time, reduce that reliance on HAP that's there at the moment. Yeah, but if acquisitions are essentially ruled out in our area, that means that options for preventing homelessness in our area are, you know, significantly less than everywhere else, which isn't very fair. Yeah, I mean, what we do see, Deputy, we do see, and we monitor the data coming from HAP exits and from allocations, we do see a lot of people transferring from HAP tenancies into other forms of social housing. So there will be quite substantial people moving from HAP into a local authority or an AHB house every year. People moving from HAP? So when, if I can clarify, when you accept a HAP... Transfers from HAP? It's a transfer, yeah. So when you accept a HAP tenancy, you have the option to go on the transfer list. Yeah. And many people choose long-term that they would prefer to go into a local authority or an AHB home. So they can choose to go on the transfer list. Local authority schemes will typically ring-fenced a proportion of allocations for people on transfer lists. And that will include people who are in a HAP tenancy in the rental market transferring into a local authority. But it doesn't really deal with the problem of stopping people going into homelessness. That's what I'm talking about. This is what we're discussing here. I'm sorry. Our options are less for stopping people going into homelessness. Well, people in a HAP tenancy can be transferred into a local authority home. So what I'm saying is we don't... Buying the house is not the only solution. There are other solutions available. I know it's not the only solution, but the other option you're saying is buying houses just generally in the market, but that we're also caught on that because the highest prices are too high in our area. And I'm saying our area needs to be looked at because it means avenues preventing homelessness in the area where the highest house prices in the country exist are significantly less than everywhere else. And that's not fair for the people who are facing homelessness. So I'm just asking for that to be considered. I'll bring you back to colleagues. The other thing is the... The duration of the time and the people who are in homelessness, is there any set criteria about sort of all of this in terms of, like, what is the time when, you know, or is it just up to the discretion of the local authority as how long is too long and the circumstances that the children, for example, may be in. I mean, to give you one example, I had a young woman in with me the other day whose child is severely autistic, won't stay with her, therefore she's separated from her child. She was bawling, crying in front of me. She's had two suicide attempts because she blames herself for the fact that her kids are homeless and she's refused priority because the council's policy is autism is too widespread in the community, therefore we can't prioritise people on that basis and I just think to my... And she's a year and a half in homelessness and I just think to myself, hold on, what are the criteria here on which people are being prioritised on how long is too long, what about the welfare of the children, you know, is there rules about these things that kind of we're trying to improve that situation with? So the rules by which allocations are made are the scheme of letting priorities and each local authority under legislation has to have its own scheme of letting priorities. The scheme of letting priorities will generally make priorities for certain categories. I think all local authorities would make priority for homeless and I think most will make priority for things like medical grounds. So you could have priority for homeless and medical grounds also. One of the issues coming out of the housing plan is an action to look at the allocation schemes that are in place. So at the moment, we're undertaking review of each local authority allocation scheme and one of the things we want to make sure is that each local authority is making sufficient provision to address homeless in their allocation schemes. There is a delegate function to the local authorities where they have certain responsibilities to make the allocation scheme but there are also powers for the Minister if he felt, for example, that homeless has not been dealt with sufficiently. So under the new housing plan, we're looking at that review to ensure that we believe enough has been done I suppose to allocate stock to homeless households. All right.