Over 100 families in social housing ‘too big for needs’
MORE than 120 households are in social housing that is too big for their needs.
And applicants on the new joint Guernsey Housing Association and States Housing waiting list will wait longer for one- and two-bed properties than for three-bedroom homes.
An Employment & Social Security spokesman said: ‘We have recently written to all our tenants regarding the changes we have made to how our waiting list for applicants and tenants is managed.
‘Part of this process for our existing tenants includes whether they are in the correct size of accommodation to meet their household need.’
Normally tenancies are reviewed every five years, unless there has been a change of circumstance.
For example, this could be when a grown-up child moves out of the family home, creating an under occupancy of the property.
Once this has been identified the tenant would then be placed on the waiting list for the correct size property.
‘We do have to manage any transfer of accommodation within our existing stock as it becomes available and we continue to build properties in conjunction with GHA which are predominantly one- and two-bedroom to meet the higher demand for those,’ the spokesman said.
A total of 27 households are currently in two-bed properties which ‘should ideally be accommodated in a one-bed property’.
A further 99 households are in three-bedroom properties that need to downsize into either one- or two-bedroom properties.
There are also a number of families too big to occupy the property they are in.
In total, 11 households are currently in two-bed properties and 13 households in three-bed properties that need to move to larger properties to accommodate their household size.
‘We currently have a total of 244 households on our waiting list, which includes 52 new applicants as well as those eligible for a transfer.
‘139 households are waiting for one-bed properties, 65 are waiting for two-bed properties and 27 waiting for three-bed properties,’ said the spokesman.
ESS said it was not possible to give a clear indication of how long a tenant could wait for a transfer if they are under-occupying a property, as it depends on how quickly properties become available.
The high demand for one and two-bed properties will mean a longer wait than for three-bed homes.
