'Linked waiting list for GHA and social housing is fairer’
A NEW consolidated waiting list for all islanders wanting to live in rented social housing is set to be introduced in September in a bid to make the system fairer.
The single gateway portal will see all islanders waiting for States or Guernsey Housing Association rental properties put on one list, along with any States tenants looking for a property transfer.
Director of housing Lynne McLagan said in the past the States had focused on housing families, while the GHA focused on the rest of the tenants.
‘The portal will mean there will be one route in, through us, and then they will be given housing on a fairer basis,’ she said.
One improvement is a criteria as to how tenants can refuse a property.
‘We want to make it fairer for everybody,’ Ms McLagan said.
‘It takes away the subjectivity. At the moment tenants have a lot of choice and they can keep saying no, so people further down the list never make it to the top. Our job is to be the best landlord we can be.’
Among the reasons a property can be refused are geographical, health care and legal.
The States currently has 1,650 rental properties, while the GHA has 659. Of these 30% are in St Peter Port and 22% in Castel.
Currently the States waiting lists for properties is quite short, around 20 to 30 people for each sort of property. But the transfer list currently has about 250 families.
Responsibility for social housing now comes under Employment & Social Security.
Its president, Deputy Michelle Le Clerc, said it accepted it had spent the last two years ‘firefighting’ problems, due to staff changes and the reorganisation of government.
But now the committee was keen to focus on being proactive and making improvements.
One option being looked into is improving properties by extending into the attic or adding extensions, to allow for larger families.
Ms McLagan said some people were on the waiting list for quite some time and they were keen to cut this down.
‘We need to use our properties as effectively as we can,’ she said.
While islanders will still need to apply for rental social housing using paper forms, Ms McLagan said in the long term they were keen to take more of the process online.
