Housing Options: the way forward?

Homelessness continues to be a significant challenge in Northern Ireland and a problem that afflicts the lives of many of local people.

According to DSD, “traditional responses to homelessness have focused on managing the impact of homelessness on individuals and families.. while this remains important, more needs to be done to prevent homelessness”. (DSD, Facing the Future: Housing Strategy for NI).

Within this policy context, a sub-group of the Promoting Social Inclusion (PSI) Homelessness Partnership has been examining the role of housing advice and in particular the potential for ‘Housing Options’ to be adopted as a means of preventing homelessness in NI.   This approach has already been implemented in Scotland and other parts of Britain.

What is Housing Options?

Housing Options is about:

•  Assisting people to make the most appropriate housing choice to meet their short and long term aspirations; which may not be necessarily going down the homelessness route.
• Looking at all tenure types and providing support to help people stay in the sector of their choice and being proactive in order to address the person’s immediate needs and personal circumstances.

Housing Options requires the provision of high quality advice and information on a range of issues including mediation services, money advice, housing support services and links to employability services.

Housing Options is not...

• About ‘gate keeping’ i.e. preventing people from making a homelessness application when this is maybe the most appropriate option;
• About only making an application for social housing;
• The responsibility of a single agency; 
• An IT system; 
• A ‘tick box’ exercise.

The Scottish experience

At a recent event, hosted by DSD and the NI Housing Executive, a range of speakers from Scotland gave informative accounts of their experiences of implementing Housing Options.

In 2003 the Scottish Parliament passed legislation to remove “priority need” as an element of a homelessness assessment. “Priority need” was subsequently abolished in 2012.  Given this commitment and amidst fears that this would lead to significant increases in the number of people qualifying for assistance as statutorily homeless, there was general agreement that there had to be a different way of tackling the problem of homelessness in Scotland.

At a local authority level, restructuring services to introduce a housing options approach appears to have been successful in reducing the number of homeless presenters and achieving substantial cost savings.  Although housing options is not considered an alternative to increasing housing supply there is persuasive evidence from Scotland that this approach could make a useful contribution to tackling the growing problem of homelessness in NI.

What next for Housing Options?

In terms of Northern Ireland, Housing Options is at an early stage. The recommendation of the PSI Sub Group is that a phased approach to implementation should be considered here.  This should commence with the identification of key stakeholders and the establishment of a Housing Options Network to help inform the development of a number of initial pilot schemes.

To find out more about Housing Options please see a number of presentations that were delivered at the recent Housing Options Conference.

Dr Andrew Waugh, Statistician, Scottish Government
Setting up the Monitoring Framework of Homeless Prevention/Housing Options

Catherine Wilkie - Glasgow Housing Options Manager
The Glasgow Experience of the Housing Options Pilot

Margaret-Ann Brujnes, Directorm Glasgow Homelessness Network
Housing Options Made Easy! Standing up for the Local People

Marion Gibbs, Team Leader for Homelessness, Scottish Government
An overview of the Experience of Developing Housing Options Across Scotland

Janeine Barrett, Principal Officer, Homelessness North Ayrshire Council
Housing Options and Homeless Prevention in North Ayreshire

Fiona King, Senior Policy Officer, Shelter Scotland
Balancing Rights and Options So Far