Homelessness

The House of Commons has published a briefing paper “Can private landlords refuse to let to Housing Benefit claimants?”. The paper discusses private landlords’ reluctance to let to Housing Benefit claimants and considers whether this is a form of discrimination.

Some of the suggested reasons why landlords may be reluctant to rent to Housing Benefit claimants include;

Ciaran and John are currently in custody at HMP Magilligan. They got a housing qualification after completing an OCN accredited Housing Rights’ training course.  This enabled them to take on the role of peer prisoner housing adviser.

The work of the peer prisoner housing adviser

The work of the peer is to help resolve simpler housing issues and address homelessness issues for prisoners.  They also refer more complex matters to the housing rights adviser in each prison.

The Northern Ireland Audit Office has released a report on Homelessness in Northern Ireland. The report examines the scale and nature of homelessness in Northern Ireland, and focuses primarily on how effective the Housing Executive’s 2012-2017 Homelessness Strategy has been in addressing this issue.