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NI providers to have less than four months to spend Supporting People cash
Housing associations and charities in Northern Ireland will have less than four months to spend cash reinstated to the Supporting People budget after an earlier 5% cut.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) announced a £3m reduction to the programme for 2017/18 in April, but it later emerged that £2.6m would be put back into the fund.
However, providers of supported housing and homelessness schemes which rely on Supporting People remained unclear over how the reinstated cash would be allocated and how long they would have to use it.
A letter sent to service providers earlier this month and seen by Inside Housing confirmed the funding reinstatement, but made clear that the additional cash would only be available up until the end of the financial year.
The NIHE said that payments of the reinstated funding will be made “from December” – meaning the more than 100 organisations affected by the initial cut will face a race against time to spend the cash before it is lost.
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Michael McDonnell, chief executive of Choice Housing, said: “Supporting People providers welcome the in-year allocation and are hoping for some flexibility in how the spending can be made. Providers are facing a range of cost pressures and, for many, the 5% reduction was largely absorbed through staffing and wages.
“Without some degree of autonomy to address the most critical pressures, providers will be unable to make best use of the allocation.”
Cameron Watt, chief executive of Alpha Housing, said the landlord was having to increase its weekly support charges for tenants at its sheltered housing schemes to help recoup money lost due to the cut before the end of the financial year.
“That isn’t great for tenants obviously – it means they are going to have a reasonably large increase in their payments,” he said.
“Having said that we are obviously pleased that it has been reversed, but clearly we need proper assurances on funding for next year. Without additional money I think there could be pressures on existing providers.”
Paul Armstrong, deputy chief executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA) said: “NIFHA welcomes the commitment to restore £2.6m of non-recurrent funding for existing Supporting People schemes.
“However, to make the best use of this funding, it is important that providers are given greater autonomy on how this funding is spent.”
Justin Cartwright, policy and public affairs manager at the Chartered Institute of Housing Northern Ireland, said: “Given the rising number of people who are homeless with complex and multiple needs, there is a strong case for securing this additional funding in future budgets.
“The financial cost of addressing homelessness is much greater than preventing it from happening in the first place.”
