There was a 27 per cent drop in the number of households prevented from entering homelessness by housing charity Threshold in the second quarter of 2023 when compared with the previous three months, its latest report shows.
Threshold prevented 880 households from entering homelessness in the second quarter of this year, including 1,204 adults and 845 children.
Those figures were down from 1,262 households in the previous quarter, which included 1,727 adults and 1,310 children. The first quarter featured the highest number of people since the charity began publishing its quarterly impact reports in 2021.
Threshold chief executive John-Mark McCafferty said the reduction in the second quarter was down to more complicated cases taking longer to deal with.
“We are continuing to see a high volume of private renters seeking support across a range of issues, but concerns surrounding termination of tenancies remain the key challenge facing tenants,” he said. “We saw a slight reduction in the number of households that were prevented from entering homelessness this quarter compared to the first quarter of this year.
“This is a result of client cases lasting for a longer time period due to their complexity, meaning that we are not closing as many cases as was previously seen.”
Threshold said 2,159 new clients who contacted the group in the second quarter were at risk of homelessness. The majority of those were at risk as a result of a landlord’s notice to sell the property.
A total of 8,685 households received support from the charity on wider tenancy issues. Nearly 50 per cent of queries received from private renters concerned tenancy termination, which was up from 37 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
Threshold advisers answered more than 11,000 phone calls and responded to almost 2,000 webchats from private renters facing challenges in their tenancy. The number of phone calls was down by 500 on the previous quarter.
Threshold also reported an increase in the number of renters seeking support regarding the retention of their deposits. Assistance on the matter was sought by 195 households, up from 172 households in the same quarter of 2022. Between January and June of this year, 338 households have sought support on the issue; 701 households contacted Threshold for advice on the matter in the whole of 2022.
As a result, the charity has initiated a campaign calling on the establishment of a deposit protection scheme. The scheme would involve a deposit being lodged with an independent third party resulting in a “fairer outcome” in relation to deposits at the end of tenancies, Threshold said.
At the end of the tenancy, the tenant or landlord would apply to the scheme for the deposit to be returned. If both the tenant and landlord agree, the deposit is returned in part or in full. If there is a disagreement, mediation is held to resolve the matter, with the Residential Tenancies Board intervening if disagreement persists.
