Housing At Risk For More Than 400,000 Vulnerable People

Ninety-five percent of supported housing providers would be forced to close housing schemes for vulnerable and older people if a planned housing benefit cap goes ahead. The capping of housing benefit at local housing allowance levels for social housing tenants, announced in the chancellor’s spending review, represents a major threat to the financial viability of such schemes because the intensive housing management required is paid for by charging higher rents. These rents are covered by housing benefit for those residents unable to work. More than 440,000 vulnerable people, many of them pensioners, live in housing association homes that are now at risk across England. These include sheltered housing and extra care for frail elderly people, and supported housing schemes for people recovering from alcohol and substance misuse, young people leaving care and women fleeing domestic violence. Read more on the Guardian website.