Page 1869 - Week 09 - Thursday, 19 October 1989
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do not contribute they should be evicted. Steps should be taken to ensure that rent is collected.
That is absolutely essential because if people are given something for nothing they tend not to look after it. That is just a fact of human nature. I think that 20 per cent of income is probably a very reasonable figure, given that there are many people in this community who are probably paying 35 to 40 per cent of their household incomes on housing.
I turn now to the question of homelessness. This incorporates the two thrusts in the Minister's papers - first, the recent ministerial statement we are debating cognately and, secondly, references made on pages 3 and 4 of the housing policy review. Youth homelessness is indeed a great problem; we are all aware of that. Many of us have seen examples of numbers of youths who are homeless and the problems that they face. It is certainly something that I saw in my job both as a private solicitor and as a prosecutor.
It is something that needs to be addressed and I am pleased to see the Government is attempting to do something, but there have been problems in relation to the way the Government has gone about this. The Minister indicated on page 3 of her housing policy review that she wished to remove restrictions on persons under 18. That is the first point relating to youth housing. On page 4 she indicates:
Housing services for young people should aim to reduce housing related poverty by providing affordable and secure medium- to long-term independent housing and group housing options for those unable to live independently.
The Minister has also indicated more recently - after I raised some problems in relation to unsupervised youth housing - that there is also no upper age limit on persons over 16. Sixteen is the lowest age at which people are considered. Also, on page 2 of her supplementary statement she talks of individual tenancies within the context of the group tenancy and also the provision - this breaks up some of the figures provided in her initial statement - of up to 20 houses under a head tenancy arrangement where people, and young people especially, will be supervised. She then indicates that 30 dwellings would be allocated to groups which are capable of living independently, and this is perhaps where some of the problems have arisen in the past and where I have certainly raised a couple of points in relation to that recently.
I turn to the statement the Minister made yesterday, which I was certainly happy to hear. I think this probably needs saying, so I will read a report about a group house situation involving young people which went wrong because there was no supervision. In a report in the Chronicle on Tuesday, 20 June, journalist David Kirkpatrick stated:
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