SOCIAL housing criteria is due to be expanded to include those under the age of 25, the Housing Minister has confirmed – as he admitted that concerns about the exodus of young Islanders “keep him up at night”.
Deputy Sam Mézec told the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel yesterday that he will be lowering the age criteria for the Affordable Housing Gateway from 25 down to 18.
“Social housing providers are often pushing me to go further and faster on this as they’re very keen to see eligibility widened,” he explained.
The Housing Minister told the panel that new applicants who fall into the widened age range would be added to the waiting list alongside existing applicants.
“The list will no longer exclude people on the basis of age once they reach adulthood, so they’ll be in the same boat as other applicants at that point,” said Deputy Mézec.
“It’s because of Andium’s success in delivering new homes that we feel we can do this without overwhelming the waiting list.”
Currently, those who wish to qualify for social housing must be over 25 years old with a maximum gross income of £40,000 (for a single applicant) or £54,000 (joint applicant) unless they have children, a disability or other exemption.
Panel chair Deputy Hilary Jeune asked the Housing Minister to provide an estimated time frame for new and existing applicants to receive housing.
Deputy Mézec replied that the timeframe for all applicants is influenced by needs and urgency, which is determined by a banding system.
“It’s all dependent on lots of circumstances, including what band they go into,” he explained.
“If somebody presents themselves and they they meet the basic criteria, but there aren’t particular extra needs, then they could be end up waiting a while, because they’d be allocated on demand three, whereas a more urgent case would be quicker.
“But then that might also depend on whether they have any other additional needs beyond just a home, you know, home of a particular type, or a home with particular elements to it that are, that are necessary for them to live in.”
Deputy Mézec confirmed that waiting times did increase slightly when the eligibility criteria was lowered to 25 years old last year, but said the change did not create an “uncontrollable queue of people”.
He added: “Because of the extra supply from Andium and our experience so far, it won’t be massive numbers of people waiting.”
Deputy Jeune welcomed the announcement amid concerns about the retention of Jersey’s young people.
“The greatest challenge facing Jersey is young people being able to afford to live here, to stay here and to build a future here,” she said.
She also asked the minister to what extent this informs his policy decisions.
Deputy Mézec said that he hopes this change will begin to address his ongoing concerns surrounding the number of young Islanders leaving Jersey.
“It keeps me up at night,” he said. “I’m constantly told by young people – whether that’s teenagers who haven’t finished their studies yet when I speak to them in school – or people who stopped me in the pub and want to talk about it, it’s a huge consideration.”
