Derry man calls for independent scrutiny in complaints procedures after Housing Executive apology

Frankie McMenamin was speaking after the conclusion of a process which has been going on for years and which he said has taken an enormous toll.

Mr McMenamin said he hoped his case will encourage anyone else going through similar issues not to give up, and added that he is now determined to campaign for changes to be formally introduced in terms of how complaints procedures are handled.

The Housing Executive told the Journal that it has “made a commitment to learn from this situation” and were now “providing an update to staff on how to effectively deal with customer complaints” in light of the case.

The Derry man detailed how he had to wait five years to be rehomed into suitable accommodation and lodged his complaint three years ago.

Back in July 2022 the Journal reported how the Housing Executive had been called upon to re-examine the case of Mr McMenamin, who had been deemed homeless after he was forced to leave a previous home due to a physical attack, a home he had lived in for 18 years.

Mr McMenamin said he had had no option but to organise his own swap due to the Housing Executive not treating his case as urgent. He relocated to a flat as an emergency measure but was still there almost seven years later, despite later being accepted as homeless and despite major issues with this new address being not suitable.

He had been seeking rehoming to a similar house or bungalow to that he had originally lived in but claimed the Housing Executive said it had been his own decision to move despite being made aware he felt he was in danger if he didn’t move.

Mr McMenamin, who has recently relocated to a suitable property, said back in July 2022 that he had been overlooked several times despite flagging up a number of suitable properties and that since then the long wait for a suitable home had compounded his serious mental and physical health difficulties.

Mr McMenamin enlisted the help of Belfast-based Housing Rights and his case was accepted and examined by the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman, an investigation which has now ended after the Housing Executive senior management proposed to issue a written apology to Mr McMenamin for the unclear communications and poor complaints handling by the HE in relation to his housing application.

The Ombudsman’s office, Mr McMenamin said, had also detailed how the Housing Executive gave a commitment to review the complaint process to prompt staff to contact third party witnesses as part of any investigation.

A written apology was issued to Mr McMenamin on August 31 from the Chief Executive of the Housing Executive, which stated that communication and delays fell well below the high standards the organisation expected of itself. The letter also stated that the Housing Executive complaints procedure has been updated to ensure that HE staff consider contacting third parties if possible, where this would be useful to corroborate and fully investigate issues raised in a complaint.

On this last point, Mr McMenamin said that given his own negative experience, he believed that the third party contact should be introduced as policy, and that an independent investigation involving a party from outside the HE should be initiated routinely in unresolved complaint cases, to prevent the organisation investigating itself.

He said he felt the apology letter from HE had left room for doubt where it stated staff would ‘consider’ contacting third parties ‘if possible’, rather than giving a firm commitment to do so as policy.

"They made a commitment with the Ombudsman where they would get a third party involved and now they seem to be going back on that,” he said. "This should be normal policy. If somebody makes a serious complaint, the Housing Executive should ask for somebody independent to come in. It shouldn’t be a case where the Housing Executive investigates itself.”

Mr McMenamin said he wanted to ensure there was ‘proper accountability’. He also urged anyone else who felt they had a serious complaint against the Housing Executive to consider taking their case to the Ombudsman’s office. “With serious complaints, people should have a right to be able to go to someone independent, not in the HE sphere of influence,” he said.

Mr McMenamin said he also felt "politicians needed to educate themselves” on applicant complaints procedures and rights as he said he was repeatedly let down and wrongly told there was nothing could be done.

"I felt they didn’t seem to be interested and turned their back on me,” he said. “This took a huge toll on me,” he said.

Responding to the points raised by Mr McMenamin in relation to his complaint and the apology issued to him recently, Housing Executive Director of Housing, Jennifer Hawthorne, said: “We have accepted the recommendations of the Ombudsman in this case and we have apologised to our customer for any distress caused.

“We have made a commitment to learn from this situation and are providing an update to staff on how to effectively deal with customer complaints,” Jennifer Hawthorne added.

Mr McMenamin thanked the Housing Rights organisation and all those who have helped him, including Paul Fleming, Denise O’Callaghan, Eamonn McCann, and Charlie O’Neill and Dr Maurice Mahon.