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Housing Rights provides the only Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme in Northern Ireland. These court desks schemes, which are more commonly seen in England, provide free legal representation to homeowners and tenants who are in court for possession hearings and risk being made homeless because of housing debt.
Advice and representation at court can make all the difference as this recent example illustrates.
When Brian first spoke to Housing Rights, he was living in a private tenancy and his only income was carer’s allowance. He was in arrears with his rent and at risk of eviction by his landlord. At this stage, Brian was not entitled to Housing Benefit, but our adviser agreed to take on his case and look into how she could help him.
Faith, an adviser with our Community Housing Advice Partnership, recently helped to have a young mother’s housing benefit payments reinstated. The Community Housing Advice Partnership offers a support service to partner agencies who work in the voluntary sector and need expert advice to deal with complex housing cases.
Sandra is a tenant of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive who was represented at court by Emma from our Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme, a project that provides court representation to people who have been taken to court because of rent or mortgage arrears.
Recently, a social worker contacted Housing Rights to ask if we could help his client John. John’s home had been left in a poor state of repair after adaptations were carried out and his housing association had told him that he’d have to cover the cost of redecorating himself.
At Housing Rights we feel that everyone should have access to specialist housing advice regardless of where they live in NI. Although our office is in Belfast, our services are available to people throughout Northern Ireland. We also work with 24 agencies across NI to provide guidance, support and assistance on housing cases as part of our Community Housing Advice Partnership.
Our Community Housing Advice Partnership recently received a call from a support worker at MACS. MACS is an organisation that helps young people who haven't had a fair deal. This particular call from MACS was about Paul, a vulnerable 20 year old who currently had nowhere permanent to live.
A few months back we received a call from a very distressed young woman. Louise had been assaulted by her partner. She was 12 weeks pregnant at the time of the assault.
Toni and Marc came to Housing Rights for help when they feared that they’d lose their home. Toni and Marc bought their home back in 2003. Since moving in they’d had three children: Jordan, Sam and Lily. Catherine, one of our advisers, had to make an application for a stay when negotiating with the lender proved fruitless.
