Guernsey States accused of hiding homelessness problem

A report has found Guernsey's response to homelessness in the island is inadequate. Credit: ITV Channel

The States of Guernsey has been accused of hiding the island's homelessness problem.

A report commissioned by local charity Maison St Pierre and published by the Guernsey Community Foundation says the States has no clear strategy on how to resolve the issue.

Research also found that Guernsey's St Julian's House is unfit for purpose as emergency housing.

The charity says that current wages are not in line with the increases in private rental costs, with the average monthly rent in Guernsey (£1,650) being equivalent to 78% of lower quartile earnings.

Those identified as at high risk of homelessness in Guernsey are:

  • Low paid / unemployed people

  • Single parents

  • Domestic abuse survivors

  • Care leavers

  • Households containing a sick or disabled person

  • Ex-offenders

  • People struggling with addiction

  • Young people who are not in education, employment, or training, who are also estranged from their families

The number of people waiting for social housing has also reached a 12-year high.

While they wait, the island’s homeless population is increasingly forced to rely on expensive, poor-quality housing, at great cost to them and to the States.

The report makes several recommendations that, if successfully carried out, would reduce harm to individuals and families caused by homelessness.

  • The States of Guernsey needs to accelerate the social housing build programme, make the Housing Action Group permanent, bring forward the introduction of the General Housing Law, introduce housing cost guarantee schemes, and define “homelessness”.

  • The Guernsey Community Foundation needs to investigate the need for a dedicated housing charity and to launch and coordinate a housing support forum.

  • The Guernsey Housing Association needs to create a new form of “interim” housing and along with the States, make social housing policies more tenant-friendly.

  • Action for Children needs to provide more training flats.

Maison St Pierre also highlighted that the lack of a States of Guernsey definition of "homeless", makes it difficult to collect reliable data.

Without having the correct data, the charity says it is unable to introduce a credible strategic response and says there is no way to track the effectiveness of policies which are designed to reduce homelessness.

In response to the report, Deputy Peter Roffey, the President of Guernsey's Social Security Committee, said: "I welcome this report as it will provide a useful evidence base for when we consider these issues as part of the Emergency Housing Project set out in the Government Work Plan.

"It is critical that the waiting list for social rental housing is reduced to help those who are financially excluded from any other housing sector, and who may therefore be homeless or unsuitably housed, to have somewhere to live that is safe and appropriate for needs."