Breaking down the barriers
Yesterday (2 May 2024) Clinks published a report from the RR3 Special Interest Group on Accommodation as part of the work of the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group. The report Breaking down the barriers – how to ensure access to the Private Rented Sector (PRS) for people leaving prison highlights the barriers to accessing accommodation (either temporary or settled) for people leaving prison or people with a criminal record. These are as follows:
- Problems accessing temporary accommodation or suitable settled accommodation via effective resettlement planning, homelessness legislation or Government provision
- Problems accessing the private rented sector (PRS), including Local Housing Allowance (LHA), guarantors, upfront costs and discrimination
- Problems accessing adequate housing-related support, including the level of support required and the limitations of current commissioned services.
This report addresses the second barrier and highlights problems accessing the private rented sector (PRS), including Local Housing Allowance (LHA), guarantors, upfront costs and discrimination.
The RR3
The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) provides the key interface between the voluntary sector, the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS with the purpose of increasing mutual understanding and building a strong and effective partnership. The RR3 convenes Special Interest Groups to advise on specific areas of policy and practice and this report has been produced by the Accommodation SIG.
The report
The report is based on two evidence sessions comprised of twenty-one voluntary organisations and officials from the Ministry of Justice and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), alongside a call for evidence that received 30 submissions. The SIG considered legislative changes and Government initiatives designed, since 2018, to mitigate some of the issues raised, and explored proposed recommendations.
The report is divided into five sections.
- An overview – the inaccessibility and unaffordability of the private rented sector (PRS)
- Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates
- Landlord reluctance to let to people leaving prison
- Prison pay
- Universal credit
Overview
The PRS has become increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible for people leaving prison, driven by the financial insecurity faced by a significant proportion of people in prison and on their subsequent release. There are fewer and few available, affordable options in the PSR despite private accommodation becoming the default option for many people given the increasing barriers to accessing local authority accommodation.
The situation is exacerbated by wider societal issues such as the impact of the pandemic and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which can both be linked to a broader housing and affordability crisis, and mainly driven by an acute shortage of affordable, rented accommodation.
There are additional barriers to accessing the PRS for people leaving prison, who are disproportionately likely to be faced with financial insecurity. These include significant upfront costs, with some landlords asking for extra money in advance on top of funding required for bonds to guarantee a tenancy along with rent up front.
Local housing allowance (LHA) rates
Getting LHA is essential to enabling access to the PRS for many people leaving prison. Rates were frozen by the Government in April 2020 which, as a result of inflation and rising rents, meant that almost all rental properties were no longer affordable to people in receipt of Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. Indeed, the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ recent analysis found that in the first quarter of 2023 “just 5% of private rental properties were affordable for housing benefit recipients”.
Landlord reluctance to let to prison leavers
Given that the PRS has become the sole option for many people leaving prison, successful engagement with private landlords is essential to improving access to suitable accommodation. But, as the report makes clear, most landlords are reluctant to let to people leaving prison.
Issues with landlord include:
- Discrimination against people with criminal records – online searches by private landlords continuing to lead to discrimination against people with criminal records.
- Issues accessing a guarantor – landlords tend to ask for a guarantor which many prison leavers simply do not have.
- Lack of safeguarding mechanisms to ensure good quality accommodation.
- Unscrupulous landlords – who receive enhanced housing benefit (as a result of providing support, supervision or care), but who then provide low standard accommodation, lacking in appropriate support.
Prison pay
Low rates of pay in prison make it virtually impossible for most people to save money for rent deposits etc. on release. Add this problem to rising rents and stagnant benefit levels and many people just can’t afford a roof over their head.
Universal credit
The Universal Credit (UC) system further exacerbates this financial insecurity, particularly given that claims for the payment cannot be submitted until the day a person has been released from prison. There can then be a significant wait until that first payment is processed.
It is possible to get an advance payment but that is of course a loan which needs to be repaid. Repayments of the advance are deducted from future monthly payments, and monthly deductions can be as high as 25% of a person’s individual monthly allowance.
Recommendations
The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at improving the financial situation of people in prison and on release, expanding the coverage of the for Ex-Offenders (AfEO) scheme across the country and government-backed rent deposit schemes.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the images in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
