Eligibility for social housing broadened in Jersey

Jersey's Minister for Housing has announced plans to expand eligibility criteria for people who need social housing.

Deputy Sam Mézec has set out the next phase of a "roadmap" to make social housing more accessible and responsive to islanders' needs. Changes include lowering the threshold for applicants without children from 25 to 18.

He said the changes would "open the door to more islanders" and allow more people to apply for social rented housing.

"This next phase of the roadmap reflects our commitment to respond to evolving housing needs and make social housing more inclusive," said Mézec.

Mézec said his roadmap would introduce several changes including:

• Introducing a new general needs band to allow households who do not meet priority criteria to access social housing, subject to availability (from January 2026)
• Removing restrictions on hardship cases, allowing those granted entitled status on hardship grounds to access social housing
• Reducing the length of time that an entitled person has to be resident in Jersey to access social housing from six to three months
• Annual review of income thresholds to ensure they remain aligned with affordability and cost-of-living changes
• Quarterly reviews of long-standing applications to ensure timely allocation and identify barriers to accessing housing
• Targeted review of Band 1 prioritisation, ensuring urgent housing needs are met whilst balancing right-sizing applications to optimise use of housing stock

Mézec said: "Introducing a general needs band will open the door to more islanders, ensuring that younger adults and households who do not meet existing priority criteria can benefit from the stability and affordability of social housing."

The minister said those facing homelessness or urgent housing needs would remain the highest priority, adding that he wanted "better communication" with applicants through the process.

He also thanked Andium Homes and other social housing providers for the delivery of more than 1,000 new homes on the island.

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