Pickyness of the accomodation offered is a surprising issue

 

Homeless Pages, an organisation who claim to be the leading source of information about publications and training on homelessness, state that statistics have shown a higher incidence of people without settled accommodation amongst those who receive both custodial and non-custodial sentences.

Although there are many prisoners offered help with their accommodation issues, some offenders remain difficult to house.

Karen Seal from HMP has provided some of the reasons why some are especially difficult to house. According to her in brief these are:

 

An issue of pride: some are insistent that they won’t go into supported accommodation but they’ve got no money for a rent deposit.

High risk prisoners:  Some have had many chances to change but they haven’t and no one will actually accept them into accommodation.

Local connection: this is a major problem. If the prisoners haven’t got connection to an area they won’t be considered for supported accommodation because of the funding. If they decided they wanted to live in a different area after their sentence they can’t unless they pay for independent accommodation which is something the majority can’t afford.

Rules of the Hostel : Each hostel has its own rules on who they choose to accommodate with many rejecting most arsonists and sex offenders.

Prejudice of prisoners on other prisoners: Some prisoners don’t want to go into some accommodation because prisoners with convictions they don’t approve of are there, i.e. sex offenders.

People who have dogs or a partner are difficult to house:

Hostels believe that the former offender’s partner should be working and have accommodation they are paying for. And pets are strictly forbidden as well, as it is for most normal tenancies.

Unacceptable requests: Some prisoners haven’t had a place to live for several years and only serve a very short sentence and yet they expect help with re-housing which is regarded as an unacceptable request.