The impact that Housing Rights work has on people’s lives

Our latest impact report looks at the positive impact that Housing Rights work has had on people’s lives.

Between April 2015 and March 2016, we gave 10,735 people advice and support for their housing problems. Of them, 

• 9 in 10 had a positive outcome to their housing problem;
• 4 in 5 felt their lives had improved;
• more than 9 in 10 believed their family life and personal relationships had improved;
• 4 in 5 saw an improvement in their ability to work, seek work or to study;
• 9 in 10 felt their feeling of safety had improved;
• 9 in 10 felt their self confidence had improved;
• 9 in 10 had a better understanding of their rights;
• more than 9 in 10 felt their health and wellbeing had improved.

We helped those 10,375 people with 43,746 housing issues. We also estimate that we have saved the public purse £16,955,120 in this year.

When everyone has a home

A good home is more than just somewhere to live. Having good home improves relationships, increases feelings of health and wellbeing and helps to develop children’s educational opportunities. Good decent homes help to decrease crime rates and develop communities and the economy. Housing Rights believes that everyone should have a home.

Helping through advice, advocacy and legal services

Our housing advice helpline and advice website offer information and advice to members of the public and other advice practitioners. Dedicated case workers take on more complex housing cases.

We represent members of the public at court and liaise with statutory bodies on their behalf.

We also offer specialist advice to those people under threat of repossession. We work with social landlords to provide a debt counselling service for tenants in arrears.

Helping through prisons

We deliver an advice and casework service in prisons to help prevent homelessness. We train prisoners to become Peer Housing Advisers. We also work intensively with people being released from prison to help them access and sustain accommodation that can help reduce offending rates.

Helping through policy

Our policy team listens to the concerns people have about housing in Northern Ireland and makes sure that these voices are heard by the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Housing Executive and other decision making bodies.

Our policy team is committed to trying to improve standards and practices in housing in Northern Ireland by making people aware of our clients’ experiences. 

Helping through training

We provide an innovative range of training courses on housing and welfare related issues, responding to the sector’s training needs. We also produce specialist legal information such as Housing Law in Practice NI and our range of Professional Resources, in plain English for the public, frontline advice agencies, statutory bodies and private organisations.

The challenge

In Northern Ireland as a whole in that same year, there were;

• 39,338 households waiting for social housing
• 22,097 households were in housing stress
• 2393 households faced repossession
• 18,628 households presented as homeless
• 11,202 households were accepted as homeless