Examination of Witnesses (Questions 220-228)
MR PADDY
MCINTYRE,
MR STEWART
CUDDY AND
MR COLM
MCCAUGHLEY
27 APRIL 2004
Q220 Chairman: And then be treated as
a homeless case.
Mr McIntyre: Again, this is where
the new legislation comes into play. This has happened to somebody
in one of our offices locally. They were displaced—and we
were satisfied to that extent, which we have always got to be—because
they had been behaving anti-socially, in which case we could disqualify
them from the waiting list. I would need to know the individual
circumstances. We have done it with an applicant who walked in
our door presenting himself as homeless and said "I have
been homeless because I was joyriding on an estate" and we
disqualified him from being homeless under the legislation.
Q221 Chairman: I do not think in this
case I will make judgment as to whether or not there was or was
not anti-social behaviour. It is a very fine balance.
Mr McIntyre: Absolutely. One man's
anti-social behaviour is another man's "I do not like your
political thoughts" or whatever.
Q222 Chairman: Exactly, thank you.
Mr McIntyre: We have got to be
very careful. It is also ripe for a judicial review.
Q223 Mr Pound: Do you make determinations
on the grounds of intentionality?
Mr McIntyre: I think legislation
that we have got under the Housing Order allows us specifically
to disqualify under that particular piece of the Housing Order
rather than under the homelessness legislation.
Q224 Mr Pound: I was wondering which
line you were taking.
Mr McCaughley: It overrides the
intentionality clauses in the homelessness legislation and, as
such, is tailored to Northern Ireland's requirements. There are
a significant number of cases already where we have actually disqualified
them.
Q225 Mr Pound: Gentlemen, our Chairman
has betrayed a distressing tendency to try to get advance copies
of your report and I have no intention whatsoever of following
him down that acquisitive path. However, your Promoting Social
Inclusion working group on homelessness was set up last year and
they must be due to report fairly soon. Can you let us know where
you are?
Mr McIntyre: I sort of think I
can dodge this one, Chairman, in the sense that the Promoting
Social Inclusion group is actually a group chaired by the Department.
The Housing Executive is actually on that particular group, along
with other Government departments and statutory agencies. My understanding
is that it is likely to be reporting some time over the next couple
of months. We are a member of that particular group rather than
being the lead on it. We believe that it is complementary to our
homelessness strategy, which I am quite happy to let you have
a copy of.
Chairman: I would not like to ask you
for a copy but, of course, if one comes our way that would be
very helpful.
Q226 Mr Pound: Could I just ask a final
question about the Northern Ireland Tenants Action Project. It
has been said that given the presence of, for example, the Department
for Social Development, the Housing Executive, and the Northern
Ireland Federation of Housing Associations on the management committee
of NITAP that the assistance provided is not wholly independent.
Mr McIntyre: I know that you are
seeing NITAP at some stage and I guess they are the best judge
of that. We fund NITAP along with the Department and, for that
reason, both the Department and the Housing Executive have representation
on their management board but in terms of hands-on, day-to-day
operation of NITAP, I frequently go to meetings where NITAP are
sitting on the other side and have views that I might not necessarily
agree with. I would not accept that at all. At an operational
level they are wholly independent. Our engagement with them is
at board level because we fund them. To make sure our funding
is well spent we, along with the Department, carry out a review
of NITAP every three or four years to make sure that it is doing
the job and it has satisfactorily passed those tests. I would
not accept that but I would be interested to hear what NITAP said.
Q227 Mr Pound: What other mechanisms
do you have for listening to the voice of tenants individually
or collectively?
Mr McIntyre: We have a Housing
Community Network which represents something in the order of 450
community groups around the Province. It builds up from the bottom
where there is a tenants' association at the local estate level.
Our manager would have a local consumer panel which is built up
from that representation which advises the manager on the local
office business plan, the performance of the office and so forth.
That builds up to a central level where there is a central Housing
Community Network which we use very extensively for policy development
and, again, that is extremely successful. We have done a lot of
work on capacity building for the voluntary sector out there and
on a quarterly basis we also carry out continuous omnibus surveys
which give us a feel for what the public think about the services
the Housing Executive are delivering.
Q228 Mr Pound: Are they published? I
am not asking for a copy of it.
Mr McIntyre: They are, yes.
Chairman: Mr Pound's last question was
known in the trade as a teaser because, as you know, we shall
be speaking to the Tenants Action Project next. Gentlemen, can
I thank you for the evidence you have given and, once again, thank
you both for your hospitality and the way that you have responded
to requests from the Committee. We are very grateful and we appreciate
the time that you have put in.
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