Charity criticises ‘lack of consistency’ in provision for homeless people with mental health issues

Local authorities’ consideration of mental health issues faced by people seeking emergency homeless accommodation has been described as “very patchy” by a charity providing free legal advice.

Aoife Kelly-Desmond, managing solicitor at the Mercy Law resource centre, said there was a “lack of consistency” in how people with mental health issues were dealt with when seeking emergency accommodation.

The Mercy Law resource centre provides free legal advice to people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

There has been a “real increase” in the level of need for housing from people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities, Ms Kelly-Desmond said.

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“While the number of households seeking social housing overall is falling, people with disability-related need is going up,” she said.

“Housing allocations that were specifically due to disability, the proportion of those due to mental health disability is now 24 per cent, which is very significant and is up from 16 per cent just in the last few years,” she said.

The solicitor was speaking on Thursday at the publication of a report examining how people with mental health issues were treated when seeking social housing or homeless supports.

In one case the law centre assisted a homeless person who was threatened with “eviction” from emergency accommodation because they refused an offer of social housing they felt would be unsuitable due to their mental health needs.

Ms Kelly-Desmond said the threat from a local authority to evict the individual from homeless services was “questionable to say the least” and caused the person “huge anxiety”.

The legal services charity criticised a Department of Housing policy change relating to how local authorities means test eligibility for social housing.

The department removed council’s discretion in considering income, meaning they had to assess applications based on an individual’s average income over the last 12 months, she said.

“If you have somebody who has had in the last three months a really serious mental health crisis, has lost their job, has no income and the medical prognosis is they will not be returning to work ... that person won’t necessarily be eligible for social housing until they are out of work long enough,” she said.

Local councils’ “hands were tied”, rendering them unable to show flexibility and recognise “this person clearly meets the criteria for social housing,” she said.

There were also problems with people with serious mental health issues being placed into congregated homeless hostels, she said.

The charity has worked with one man, who had mental health issues, who had sought emergency accommodation but ended up sleeping rough on the streets, as he did not want to sleep in a dorm in a hostel, she said.