Mr. Wayne Stanley:

We made the Housing Commission aware of our wording and we offered to meet the commission. We will submit it again through the consultation process, which we very much welcome. We have started to inform all of our stakeholders and supporters of our organisation across the country about this process. Hopefully it will receive a good and wide hearing and response.

By way of a practical example, I referenced research that looked at countries with similar commitments in responding to homeless and housing-led responses to homelessness, which were Scotland and Ireland. In Scotland, the language used and the legal commitment was around a right to housing and in Ireland, the commitment was constructed in a way that was closer to a charity model of providing services to people who were in need. The researcher found, in talking to people who were recipients of those service, that the people in Scotland who recognised it as a right, had a sense of ownership and engagement with service providers and local authorities. They felt it was their right and they wanted to know how it was going to be vindicated whereas in the Irish context, people were very grateful for the services they got. While a local authority or agency might appreciate an appreciative customer, the person who feels that it is his or her right, is someone you work with to vindicate that right. That in a broader citizenship context is the way we should go.

All of us in this room and most of the politicians I have engaged with on this committee are working very hard to try to progress housing on the ground and the changes we can make. We sometimes get frustrated by the fact that no matter how good the people you are engaging with are, the issue seems to fall between two stools or different organisations. The single-minded focus that a constitutional right gives us will help to bridge those gaps and close those silos.