Housing Rights publishes discussion paper on proposed changes to homelessness law
Later this week, the Department for Communities is expected to publish its official response to the recommendations set out in the Northern Ireland Assembly Public Accounts Committee’s Inquiry into homelessness.
The Inquiry report - widely welcomed across the housing and homelessness sector - includes a key recommendation that:
The Department work with the Housing Executive to explore options for strengthening homelessness prevention through the introduction of a statutory duty and bring forward proposals to the Minister within 12 months. In doing so, the Department should review and assess the impact of similar statutory duties in other jurisdictions, including those where the threat of homelessness duty afforded to households extends to at least 56 days.
To support the development of these proposals, Housing Rights has produced a discussion paper outlining key learning from other parts of the UK and highlighting the issues that will need careful consideration in Northern Ireland. The paper, which has been shared with the Minister for Communities and the Public Accounts Committee, draws on Housing Rights’ frontline experience supporting people facing homelessness as well as our research into best practice elsewhere.
The discussion paper also sets out recommendations to ensure that the process for developing proposals is inclusive, evidence‑based, and informed by the experiences of those most affected and those who will need to work together to prevent homelessness. In other parts of the UK, where new legal changes have been introduced, an expert stakeholder group was established to inform government policy proposals and to hear from frontline workers and people with experience of homelessness. This work was initiated by government and supported by Crisis who acted as secretariat to the groups. In Northern Ireland, Housing Rights has previously offered to play this role.
To inform this paper, we have had detailed conversations with those involved in this work in other parts of the UK to learn from their experience and sought legal advice on the limitations of the current NI legislation.
We will carefully review the Department’s official response to the Committee Inquiry when it is published and look forward to further discussions with officials and sector colleagues. We are committed to working with others to help shape the best way forward in Northern Ireland.
