Top Issue 1-2024

3 November 2011

Resize: A A A Print

THOUSANDS AT RISK OF LOSING THEIR HOMES

Nelson McCausland - ‘Minister for Evictions’

LAURA FRIEL

» BY LAURA FRIEL

NELSON McCAUSLAND is in danger of becoming “the Minister for Evictions”, according to the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Fra McCann.  The West Belfast MLA was speaking after the DUP, backed by the Ulster Unionist Party and the Alliance Party defeated a “Prayer of Annulment” motion by Sinn Féin in the Assembly which would have stopped thousands of people from losing their homes.
Around 6,000 people living alone and currently in receipt of the single accommodation rate of Housing Benefit are at risk of eviction after the DUP minister refused to challenge a British Government directive to raise the age threshold of entitlement from 25 to 35 years of age as part of the Welfare Reform Programme.
To date, single people over 25 were entitled to Housing Benefit for a one-bedroomed, self-contained flat while those under 25 could only access help with rent for a single room in shared accommodation. Now, with one stroke, thousands of people already living in private rented flats will see their rent relief reduced by half. For many, a 50% reduction in housing benefit is tantamount to a notice to quit.
Fra McCann told An Phoblacht:
“If they were housed in social housing their rents would be paid but years of official failure means there isn’t enough social housing. Our homeless hostels are bursting at the seams and if we are forced to resort to emergency accommodation in B&Bs and hotels, it will be more costly than the Housing Benefit it replaces. The spectre of rough sleeping stalks this issue.
“British Works and Pensions Minister Iain Duncan Smith argues this ruling has nothing to do with cuts. He claims providing public support for single-occupancy tenancy for those under the age of 35 ‘erodes the incentive to work’.  He is wrong.
“Homelessness, insecure housing and rough sleeping undermine the ability of a person to secure work. It renders them less employable, not more. Why does the current British Government persist in peddling the notion that to incentivise the rich you must make them richer but, by the same token, the poor must be made poorer.”
Last month, at the suggestion of Fra McCann, the Committee for Social Development agreed to take the matter before the Assembly by triggering what is known as a “Prayer of Annulment”, a last-ditch attempt to stop Statutory Rule 293 from being endorsed by appealing to the House.
Fra McCann said:
“Men under the age of 35 will be the most adversely affected: the same social group that carries the highest risk of suicide here in the North. Many of those who will lose their homes do not have the kind of family ties that might support them in a crisis. The figures for women are less but, for those affected, the loss of their home will be just as traumatic.
“No longer eligible for support as a single person, people are being told to seek shared accommodation. But there isn’t enough multiple occupancy housing (HMOs) in the Six Counties! Unlike London, we have no tradition of shared accommodation and few Victorian town houses to convert. There are only 4,000 registered HMOs and they are mostly earmarked for students. In rural areas, it is even worse with only 87 shared houses available. But even if sufficient shared accommodation magically became available, would it really be suitable?
“I know one thing for certain: the experience of students sharing a house while at university or young professionals sharing while saving to buy their own home will not be mirrored by the experience of the poorest in our society. Image the plight of a woman or vulnerable man driven by the threat of destitution into accepting a room in a house where they don’t feel safe.”
A recent report conducted by academics from universities in York and Edinburgh has warned the combination of insufficient shared accommodation and an increase in the number of people seeking shared accommodation will push the youngest out of the market, into hostels and onto the streets.
The report concluded that, as a direct result of the British Government’s imposition of this change, many single people will be forced into accepting a room in unsuitable even unsafe accommodation which in turn will lead to greater insecurity of tenancy, repeated periods of homelessness and an increase in the incidence of rough sleeping.
Fra McCann also told An Phoblacht:
“Nelson McCausland publicly accepted that this ruling would result in particular hardship here but he still refused to do anything about it. The DUP argued that to reject this would risk the British Government imposing cuts elsewhere. The UUP and Alliance Party voted in support of the DUP minister.
“This new regulation relies on an arbitrary change in definition of who constitutes a young person from 25 to 35 years of age. In the words of American folk singer Woody Guthrie, ‘some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen’.”

 

Follow us on Facebook

An Phoblacht on Twitter

An Phoblacht Podcast

An Phoblacht podcast advert2

Uncomfortable Conversations 

uncomfortable Conversations book2

An initiative for dialogue 

for reconciliation 

— — — — — — —

Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

GUE-NGL Latest Edition ad

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland