Removing priority need status from ex-offenders – more evidence needed
Priority need status for ex-offenders was introduced in Wales in 2001 and has been a subject of considerable controversy ever since. Lately, the current debate around the Housing Bill strongly suggests there may be support among the homelessness sector for modifying or removing altogether the automatic right to housing for this group.
Critics cite high drop-out rates from temporary accommodation, a high incidence of reoffending and repeat homelessness. Yet, when Shelter Cymru looked into the issue, we found that there was very little formal research into the impacts of this legislation and the rates and reasons for ex-offenders leaving temporary accommodation.
We believe that any change in policy in this area needs to be based on firm evidence, not on assumptions about ex-offenders’ behaviour on leaving prison.
Concerned about this lack of data, we made Freedom of Information requests to all Welsh local authorities asking for details on why ex-offenders in priority need left temporary accommodation in 2010/11. We had responses from 13 authorities, which we then compared with data for all households in the WHO12 return. The results were quite intriguing.
Of all ex-offenders leaving temporary accommodation in the 13 authority areas in 2010/11, 39% moved on to more settled housing, compared with 62% of all households leaving temporary accommodation. Overall, ex-offenders were around one and a half times more likely to drop out of temporary accommodation than all households.
However, this was not a uniform pattern across all authority areas. In fact, six of the 13 authorities we sampled were achieving move-on rates for ex-offender households of more than 50% in 2010/11. The highest was 72%. Meanwhile, in three authorities, ex-offenders were no more likely to drop out from temporary accommodation than any other household.
This suggests that there may be considerable variation in the service offered to ex-offenders in different parts of Wales, and that a number of services are particularly successful in implementing good practice regarding the initial housing and support needs of this client group. There needs to be further examination of the nature of support offered to ex-offenders before and after release, as well as the nature of temporary accommodation, to establish the reasons for this variation.
Previous research carried out by Shelter Cymru identified numerous examples of good practice in Wales in relation to ex-offenders and pinpointed a range of success factors including early intervention within sentences. These included quality and availability of support services during and after custody; quality, availability and location of temporary and long-term accommodation; proximity of family and friends; and ability to access employment opportunities.
Support workers at Prison Link Cymru in North Wales, a project run by Shelter Cymru, identify post-release support as a critical factor. Regardless of whatever resettlement plans have been made prior to release, without support many former prisoners will fail even to attend at a local authority homelessness office. If the quality and availability of support differs substantially between local authorities, this may help to explain differences in resettlement rates.
There is also a need to analyse the long term outcomes for ex-offenders who go on to more settled housing. From the data we gathered, we can estimate that in 2010/11 this may have been around 300 households.
It has been estimated that being in stable accommodation reduces the risk of reoffending by one fifth and it was evidence of this nature that informed the original decision to give homeless ex-offenders priority status in Wales. We need to investigate the rate of reoffending among those who have moved on to settled housing over the last decade as a result of being owed the main homelessness duty, to ensure we fully understand the extent of the effectiveness of the legislation.
We appreciate that this is a difficult area and many people are not sympathetic to the needs of ex-offenders, but it does not alter the fact that changes to policy and legislation have to be evidence based.
This is why we urge the Welsh Government not to make any decision until a clearer picture can be established. Removing priority need status from ex-offenders might tick some populist boxes, but it makes no sense if it increases the financial and social costs in the long term.