Supported housing for older people should be ‘excluded from funding changes’ until at least 2022, housing campaigners say.
The Government is consulting on proposed changes to the funding framework for supported housing.
In its response to these consultations, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) said older people should not be included in the proposals until the full rollout of universal credit had been completed.
This would allow more time for a proper debate on how housing costs for older people should be managed, they said.
CIH said if providers did not have long-term financial security then schemes would become unviable and this would have significant implications on already strained social and health services.
‘There is a real risk that without long-term security we will see providers of supported housing pull out of providing such schemes,’ CIH chief executive Terrie Alafat said.
‘A reduction of supported housing schemes would be a travesty for some of the most vulnerable people in the UK and could have significant implications on our already strained health and social services.
‘We believe supported housing for older people should be excluded from the proposed framework until at least 2022 – when the full roll out of universal credit has been achieved.
‘That would give the government the chance to get the funding framework for schemes for working age people right and allow more time for a proper debate on how housing costs for older people should be managed in pension credit or other mechanisms.’
CIH also said emergency accommodation, including refuges and hostels, should be funded by a separate grant which sits outside of the framework.
‘Elsewhere the provision of emergency accommodation is simply incompatible with the payment of LHA through universal credit and we are proposing this is funded through a separate block grant,’ said Ms Alafat.
