Ms Andrea Fitzgerald:

On the Vice Chairman's question on whether our people are able to access their preferences or if they have a choice, broadly, those people who find themselves in a homelessness crisis probably do not end up housed where they would prefer to live. On the work we do across the region, much depends on when people are referred to us. We have had some good examples of what is possible if we have time to work with people. If people come to us and flag that they have received a notice to quit at an early point in the process, that gives us scope to get some real work done. We are able to build a relationship with the individuals concerned and with whatever local authority is involved and present the case with a human face and the human story behind it. If Covid-19 has taught us one thing, it is that we were able to pull off unbelievable results in the face of a pandemic when we all worked collaboratively together. Many positive results came from doing that.

Much hinges on what is going on and what part of a journey people are on in determining whether they end up being accommodated in the homes they wish to be in. We have had some good outcomes when people come to us in the earlier part of their journey. A large part of our work is constant collaboration with the local authorities. On the other hand, if people are already out of their homes when they come to us and we cannot access something for them in a timely manner, they will probably have to go through the staircase model of services for some time. To answer is individual in each case. Broadly, however, when people are in a serious crisis, they will, as the Vice Chairman said, take whatever option will get them out of it quickest.