Housing Gateway System

​​Request ​841930787

I request the following information in relation to properties allocated through the Affordable

Housing Gateway / Social Security Housing Gateway system:

1. The total number of two-bedroom flats currently within the Affordable Housing Gateway system.

2. Of those properties, how many are currently:

- occupied,

- unoccupied/vacant,

- unavailable due to maintenance or refurbishment.

3. How many two-bedroom properties contain:

- wet rooms,

- walk-in showers,

- wheelchair-accessible adaptations,

- step-free access,

- other disability-accessible modifications.

4. Of the adapted or accessible properties identified above, how many are currently occupied by tenants who:

- have an assessed physical disability,

- have no assessed physical disability,

- are recorded as requiring accessibility adaptations for medical or disability-related reasons.

5. Please provide the policy or criteria used when allocating accessible or adapted housing to tenants.

6. Does the Affordable Housing Gateway maintain a register or classification system identifying disability-adapted properties? If so, please provide details.

7. How many applicants currently registered with the Affordable Housing Gateway are awaiting:

- wheelchair-accessible accommodation,

- adapted accommodation,

- ground-floor accommodation,

- properties with wet rooms or walk-in showers.

8. Please provide the current average waiting time for applicants requiring disability-adapted accommodation.

9. How many disability-adapted properties have been allocated within the last 3 years to applicants without identified physical accessibility needs?

10. Please provide any guidance, policies, or procedures relating to:

- reasonable adjustments under the Discrimination (Jersey) Law 2013,

- prioritisation of disabled applicants,

- safeguarding considerations in housing allocation decisions.

11. Please provide the number of complaints received within the last 3 years relating to:

- disability discrimination,

- failure to provide reasonable adjustments,

- inaccessible housing,

- allocation of adapted housing.

12. Please provide any equality impact assessments, audits, or reviews undertaken concerning accessible housing allocation or disability accommodation within the Affordable Housing Gateway system.

Response

For questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 12:

The Affordable Housing Gateway is an assessment and prioritisation service which administers the waiting list for social and affordable housing in Jersey and determines applicants’ eligibility to access housing. This assessment includes consideration of medical, accessibility and adaptation requirements, supported by appropriate evidence, including input from qualified professionals where relevant.

It compiles a list of eligible applicants which housing providers can then access.

The Affordable Housing Gateway does not allocate, own, or manage properties, with property ownership and allocation decisions being carried out by housing providers. As such, it does not hold information on properties available.

Therefore, the information requested is not held by the Affordable Housing Gateway and cannot be provided. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

6. The Affordable Housing Gateway does not maintain a register or classification system identifying disability-adapted properties.

As the Affordable Housing Gateway does not allocate, own, or manage properties nor hold information relating to property attributes, the requested information is not held.

Therefore, the information requested cannot be provided. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

7. Affordable Housing Gateway records indicate that there are:

• ​7 active applicants who require wheelchair-accessible accommodation,
• 263 active applicants who require ground-floor accommodation,
• 103 active applicants who require properties with wet rooms or walk-in showers.

Affordable Housing Gateway cannot provide a specific number of applications relating to “adapted accommodation” as 'adapted accommodation' is not a defined category within the Gateway's records.

Where specific accessibility or adaptation needs are identified, these are supported by Occupational Therapy assessments and are considered as part of the allocation process by individual housing providers, who are responsible for managing and adapting their housing stock.

*Please note that customers may be counted in multiple categories. For example, a customer who requires both a ground floor property and a walk-in-shower would be recorded under both questions, resulting in them being counted more than once.

8. The Affordable Housing Gateway does not routinely track average waiting times for applicants requiring disability-adapted accommodation. Waiting times vary depending on individual housing needs and the availability of suitable properties. In some cases, an applicant with higher priority may not be offered a property if it does not meet their requirements, and housing providers may instead offer the property to another suitable applicant further down the waiting list. This results in a wide range of waiting times, with those with more specific needs often remaining on the Gateway for longer periods.

Active applications for Individuals where the primary application reason is relating to medical issues, requiring a fully disabled adapted property or where they have urgent or moderate medical requirements have been analysed. The average time that these individuals have been on the Gateway is 20 months. However, in some cases individuals have waited significantly longer due to their specific housing needs. This again can be wholly dependent on available stock for adapted property within the housing providers portfolios.

10. The Affordable Housing Gateway does not hold policies relating to reasonable adjustments, prioritisation of disabled applicants, or safeguarding considerations in housing allocation decisions. Therefore, this information is not held for the purposes of Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

However, the Affordable Housing Gateway Eligibility Policy sets out the general criteria for accessing social housing. This includes consideration of medical and accessibility requirements, supported by appropriate evidence from qualified professionals where relevant. The criteria is located on gov.je Eligibility Criteria for Renting Social Housing.pdf

Safeguarding considerations may also be taken into account where relevant information is available to the Gateway, and where appropriate, individuals may be signposted to other services, such as Adult Social Services, for further support.

11. The department does not record complaints under the specific categories requested (disability discrimination, failure to provide reasonable adjustments, inaccessible housing, and allocation of adapted housing).

In line with records management and retention schedules​, feedback data held within the Customer Feedback Management system is retained for up to 12 months following resolution. After this, the data is anonymised, leaving only aggregated volumetric information.

While it may be possible to identify relevant complaints in the last 12 months through a manual review of individual records, this would require reviewing a large volume of data to assess the content of free-text submission.

The work required to identify and extract this information would exceed the maximum cost limit set by the Law. Information not provided – Article 16 applies.

For context:

Complaints are categorised into standard categories based on what fits the specific circumstance described and are available on the webpage Feedback statistics​.

Complaints in relation to disability discrimination, failure to provide reasonable adjustments, inaccessible housing, and allocation of adapted housing would most likely fall into the categories of:

• ​Disability and Inclusion, or
• How I access your services

There were 1236 complaints within the last 3 years in these categories. Of these, 123 complaints were received within the last 12 months, which is the period for which detailed records remain available. However, these categories will also include other complaints, not relevant to the question.

Articles applied:

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Access to information held by a scheduled public Authority

16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.​​