Assembly Roundup: April 2016

Allocation of social housing

To ask the Minister for Social Development for an update on the Housing Selection Scheme review. Mr Andy Allen, UUP AQW 55639/11-16

My officials continue to gather evidence and consider whether proposals for changes to the allocations system should be made, following publication of independent recommendations on this issue. Any change in policy will be a matter for the Minister of the new Department for Communities.

Homelessness

To ask the Minister for Social Development to detail what action his Department is taking to address homelessness in Belfast. Mr Fearghal McKinney, SDLP AQW 55565/11-16

My Department addresses homelessness through the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which has statutory responsibility for responding to homelessness. The NIHE has a duty to produce a Homelessness Strategy every 5 years and the current 2012 – 2017 strategy sets out a range of actions to achieve the vision of “eliminating long term homelessness and rough sleeping by 2020”. 

My Department chairs an inter-agency Homelessness Strategy Steering Group, to provide guidance and direction on the Homelessness Strategy and includes representation from the voluntary provider sector as well as the statutory agencies including DHSSPS and DoJ.

DSD provides funding of over £35 million per year for homelessness services in Northern Ireland, of which some £13m per year is for homelessness services in Belfast. This funding includes help for those in emergency situations, funding for work to prevent homelessness, as well as housing support services through the Supporting People Programme.

Early intervention and prevention is a key element of the NIHE’s Homelessness Strategy.  In support of this, the NIHE is developing a Housing Options approach to improve how it delivers its frontline homelessness services. Currently being piloted within three Housing Executive Offices (Belfast, Causeway and South Down), the Housing Options Model will examine an individual’s circumstances and choices in the widest sense when they seek housing advice to ensure that the housing solution is tailored to the specific needs of the individual with the necessary support provided where appropriate. Key objectives are to prevent homelessness and achieve choice both within the social housing and the private rental sector. NIHE plan to rollout its Housing Options Model across the organisation by March 2017

Homelessness is often characterised as being solely about rough sleeping when this is not the full picture. Rough Sleeping in Northern Ireland largely occurs in Belfast and to a lesser extent in Londonderry.  Services in Belfast include:

• Providing day and night-time street outreach
• Providing a day centre with support services for up to 100 vulnerable service users
• Providing 20 crash beds and a night time reception service
• Provision of a wet hostel for up to 22 people
• 880 places of temporary accommodation for all types of households in Belfast, equating to over 2500 beds
• 351 of those places can be accessed directly by individuals

In recent years in Belfast there has been a growing visibility of street activity including street drinking, begging and rough sleeping leading to a perception that the need to sleep on the street is on the rise.  Late last year the Housing Executive in partnership with the Welcome Centre, Depaul Ireland and Belfast City Centre Management completed a Belfast Street Needs Audit.  The Audit was carried out over a 12 week period from May to July 2015 between the hours of 10pm and 8am to get as comprehensive a picture as possible of street activity in Belfast. 

The Audit has highlighted that in addition to an entrenched group of rough sleepers who require case management from a housing perspective, there was a larger group observed that were engaged primarily in begging and street drinking.  There are concerns that the visibility of this group is leading to a perception of higher rates of rough sleeping.  A multi-agency approach is required to tackle this and two interagency groups have been established, one led by the NIHE to address the needs of identified chronic rough sleepers and the other, led by Belfast Community Safety Partnership will address the issues of street begging and street drinking.

Homelessness is much more than a housing issue. Tackling homelessness in all its dimensions requires the collaboration of a wide range of partners from the statutory, voluntary and community sector. Following the recent deaths linked to homelessness I have established a Ministerial Sub–Group with ministerial colleagues from Justice and Health, Social Services and Public Safety to explore further the issues of street homelessness in Belfast and identify what more needs to be done. The first meeting took place on 14 March and was also attended by members of the provider sector and NIHE.

An initial action plan has been developed which is being shared with NI Executive colleagues. The plan focuses on short-term and longer term actions to make existing services more accessible, address current identified gaps in service, improve linkages between services and raise public awareness on some key issues.

Affordable warmth

To ask the Minister for Social Development whether he will increase the number of homes targeted by the Affordable Warmth scheme. Ms Claire Sugden, Independent AQW 55544/11-16

The number of homes which can be assisted by the Affordable Warmth Scheme depends on the budget available and the average amount spent on improving the energy efficiency of the home. The average spend per household in 2015/2016 was £3,900 (an increase from the £1,440 average spend under the former Warm Homes Scheme) and resulted in the delivery of multiple energy efficiency improvements including roof space and cavity wall insulation, new heating systems and replacement windows.

In 2016/17 it is anticipated that the Affordable Warmth Scheme will deliver at least 6,000 measures to 4,000 vulnerable households. The Affordable Warmth Scheme uses a targeted area based approach to identify vulnerable households most at risk of fuel poverty and encourage them to take advantage of the measures available.

My Department will continue to monitor demand for the scheme and keep the budget under review.

Social housing rents

To ask the Minister for Social Development , given the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that social housing rents would be reduced by one per cent for each of the next four years, whether he has given any consideration to implementing the same reductions locally.  Mr Andy Allen, UUP AQW 55490/11-16

I have given this issue my consideration and rejected the possibility of rent reductions for NIHE tenants. Social rents must be affordable for tenants, but if they are too low they will make social housing itself unsustainable. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s rents have been at much lower levels than local authority rents in England for some time. Their current level is lower than the level comparable English rents will reach even after reductions over the next four years.

Increases are needed to close this gap and sustain the stock of the NIHE.  My Department recently released survey results that show that £1.5bn of investment is needed in the NIHE stock in the 5 years from 2015/16. Rental levels must help support that investment requirement.

Following the policy decision to cut social rents in England, HM Treasury indicated that the devolved administrations would be expected to identify proportionate savings in Housing Benefit. In light of this, I decided to freeze Northern Ireland Housing Executive rents for 2016/17 and recommended that Housing Associations should also apply a rent freeze. I am keenly aware of the impact of this decision for the Housing Executive and its maintenance programme and officials will continue to engage with HM Treasury on this matter as a priority.

Provision of social housing

To ask the Minister for Social Development to detail the number of social housing new builds since 1998. Mrs Dolores Kelly, SDLP AQW 55436/11-16

The table below details the total social housing starts from 1998/99 to 16 March 2016

The figures include all new social housing starts across all scheme types i.e New Build, Off-the-Shelf, Existing Satisfactory Purchases and Rehabilitation/Re-improvement. (see table)

Vulnerable persons

To ask the Minister for Social Development to detail how the needs of vulnerable adults that are Northern Ireland Housing Executive customers are (i) assessed; (ii) identified; and (iii) met, to ensure they are safeguarded. Ms Claire Sugden, Independent AQW 55217/11-16

When any person approaches the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) for a service, whether it’s a new housing applicant or an existing tenant, staff will assess their housing associated needs and advise on or recommend further support if this is deemed necessary for the person/family and their housing circumstances. Often, when the needs are more complex, or staff are not qualified to assist, the issue will be referred directly to the individual’s GP or Social Worker. Housing Executive staff are aware that it is part of their role to ensure that those organisations that have a responsibility to help people who are vulnerable are informed as appropriate.

Safeguarding vulnerable people is a high priority for the Housing Executive and it has policies and procedures in place to address this. The policies and procedures are communicated to Housing Executive staff in a number of ways and a team of Designated Safeguarding Officers have been appointed, in a range of locations, to give direct access for staff members who need advice, support or who wish to make referrals to Social Services and or the PSNI.

Many of the NIHE’s services are provided to assist vulnerable adults, such as homelessness services and services provided through the Supporting People Programme. While these services are not normally delivered directly by NIHE but through external providers, NIHE ensures that the providers have appropriate policies in place, that they communicate them effectively to staff and that they are properly enforced.

The Housing Executive’s policies on Safeguarding clearly state that any organisation, that acts as an agent for the Housing Executive, or provides services for the Housing Executive, on the basis of an agreement or contract, must have Safeguarding policies and procedures that are of an equivalent standard to the Housing Executive’s. This provision is supported by contractual documentation and the offer of training provided by the NIHE to the service provider/contractor.

Providers funded through the Supporting People programme are not legally contractors or consultants. Rather, the Supporting People funding agreements create an independent funding relationship which is not analogous to an employer/contractor relationship. The Housing Executive use the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) to assess and validate the quality of service, of which a core objective requires providers to have robust policies and procedures in place for safeguarding and protecting adults and children, that they have been reviewed in the last three years and, are in accordance with current legislation.

The obligation for vetting employees lies with the service provider. This responsibility remains with the recipient of the funding agreement, regardless of whether or not they sub-contract the agreement or any part of the agreement with or without consent.