Executive 'complacent about homeless'

Executive accused of "poor management" of homeless problem

The Housing Executive has been accused of "disturbing complacency" over homelessness in Northern Ireland.

In a report, published on Thursday, the Committee of Public Accounts at Westminster found that the Executive's strategic management of homelessness was "poor".

The committee said that the numbers of families forced to spend long periods in bed and breakfast accommodation was unacceptable.

It said the Department of Social Development was guilty of a lack of control over the Housing Executive and failed to monitor its delivery of services

The report stated: "NIHE took 14 years to develop its first formal homelessness strategy.

"This shows a disturbing level of complacency about meeting its statutory duty towards some of the most vulnerable members of society."

Committee chairman Edward Leigh MP said the findings were very worrying.

"I am very concerned that it took NIHE so long to devise a strategy for getting to grip with the growing homelessness problem and that the department exercised so little control over the quality of service being provided."

Improvements 'encouraging'

Recognising that the Executive was now putting in place its homelessness strategy, the Conservative MP said the improvements were encouraging and long overdue.

The Housing Executive published proposals for its Homelessness Strategy in September 2002 and is currently in the process of implementing it.

Last week, the Executive announced a £1.4m funding package to help tackle homelessness across the province. This increased its annual spending on homelessness to £26.6m.

Chief Executive Paddy McIntyre said that the numbers of people claiming to be homeless had remained static at about 8,500 per year.

But he added that last year, almost four out of five homeless families had been permanently rehoused within six months.

"The Housing Executive placed 4,500 households in temporary accommodation last year. By the end of March 2004 we had met the government's target and had no homeless families with children in B&B accommodation for longer than six weeks."

Commenting on the falling numbers of people forced into B&Bs, Mr McIntyre said that most of the temporary accommodation provided by the Housing Executive was self-contained.

"In recent months, a number of new community-based homeless hostels have been opened by the Housing Executive, and others will follow later this year."