Reforms to Northern Ireland's housing allocation system could help associations prevent anti-social behaviour and build safer and more sustainable communities.
Patrick Thompson, Interim Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations, told Belfast Live that anti-social behaviour should be addressed by the sector and outlined the "tweaks" to the housing system that they believe will benefit the lives of their tenants.
Belfast Live has highlighted a number of housing association residents who feel that not enough was being done to tackle issues in their properties, which included violent incidents, drug abuse and disruptive flats.
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Mr Thompson said that housing associations are always working to tackle anti-social behaviour and disruption in their developments but it was not an issue that is increasing significantly with reported problems often being isolated and extreme cases.
However, he said that NIFHA has been working with the Housing Executive and Department for Communities to find solutions, with the organisation believing that certain reforms are needed to improve it for everyone.
These include housing associations being granted greater powers to deal with tenants causing anti-social behaviour and disruption, intimidation point reform and being allowed more information on prospective tenants so they are able to put the correct support and help in place for them.
Mr Thompson said: "As a sector we firmly believe that the allocation system does need to be reviewed and there is some work going on at the moment with the Housing Executive.
"The system in its entirety works in providing a fair allocation policy but it does need tweaked. Reform work has been taking place and hopefully changes will come into place soon, because we do have long waiting lists, and it needs to be fair and equitable.
"We need to make sure that those who are genuinely intimidated have a pathway out of that problem into a safe and secure home in a community that is supportive of them.
"One thing is important to note, anti-social behaviour is not always perpetrated by housing association tenants and we would never want the vast majority of tenants to be vilified for it.
"A lot of tenants will sign good neighbour agreements and things and when things go wrong it can be a breach of tenancy and legal action occurs, so it was really to get that unified message out there that Housing Associations will always take action.
"We are limited in part because we don’t have the same level of powers that other bodies do, we don’t have the same powers as the Housing Executive or councils to act on ASB.
"NIFHA is working with the PSNI and Department of Justice to try and have a look at seeing if we can have increased powers that would give us the same level of power that the Housing Executive has and that would help us in allowing us to tackle ASB quicker with a better result.
"We know how difficult it can be when two residents are causing trouble in a block of flats and it can impact so many other people and we need to reassure housing association tenants that we are taking it very seriously on their behalf to get increased powers that would help us even more."
Mr Thompson said that information is key to housing associations in helping them understand their tenants and their needs, as they can have complex or vulnerable ones. The more information they are able to receive ahead of a tenancy allows them to better support the tenant and improve their living experience.
He said: "What would be useful for our sector would be a greater understanding of those who are on the waiting list. We provide homes and an awful lot of housing management on the other side of that which is about keeping neighbourhoods nice and tidy and addressing anti-social behaviour.
"But what we don’t know is how much support those tenants coming in might need. It could be their first tenancy and they might not be sure how to run their home, one useful thing in reforming the allocation system would be for us to have more information from the allocations unit at the Housing Executive. They have a large amount of information about every applicant but a lot of that information is not passed to us so it is very difficult for us to deal with the situation if we don’t know the full picture.
"If someone is coming with highly complex needs or a drug addiction problem it would be more useful for us to know this because then we can provide the right package of support and know how to link them into different parts of the community in terms of health and wellbeing. That would make their tenancy work much better for themselves and that would have a knock on into our communities.
"We are never going to turn someone away, we will always house them, but having comprehensive information to make that tenant make the best of that tenancy and if they have been in a hostel or homeless, we make sure they won’t be in that position again."
NIFHA has joined with the PSNI, HACT and the Derg Local Area Growth Partnership for a new campaign called Stamp Out which addressed anti-social behaviour and promotes good neighbourhood relations.
The group has launched an animated video which will be used to prevent the emergence of antisocial behaviour in social housing schemes across Northern Ireland. The key messages of the film focus on advocating positive behaviours amongst tenants of social housing schemes that will in turn lead to more settled, connected, and safer neighbourhoods, whilst also reducing the cases The Stamp Out Antisocial Behaviour video will be shared and promoted across social housing in
Northern Ireland, as well as across the wider community. This is one of a number of pro-active steps housing providers are taking to address antisocial behaviour and encourage more positive action by tenants and neighbours of ASB reported to housing associations.
Claire Conlon is a Choice Housing tenant who participated in the animation workshops.
After seeing the final video she said: “An excellent initiative, cooperating with other tenants from different Housing Associations highlighting the impacts of ASB on the lives of the community. I was proud to be part of the group in the process of making this brilliant video."
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