City centre set to slap ban on any increase in bed-sits
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A ONE-YEAR ban on allowing any more Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Inverness city centre looks likely to be introduced amid concerns over antisocial and criminal behaviour by tenants.
There are about 150 beds in HMO properties in High Street, Church Street and Union Street, housing homeless people, many with drug and alcohol problems.
Concerned businesses believe the number of HMOs is partly linked to the high incidence of people begging and drinking on city streets and stealing to fund their addiction, claiming the anti-social behaviour is hitting their trade.
At one stage, Baron Taylor’s Street was even nicknamed "Junkie Street" by city workers, claiming drug peddlers were often doing deals, trying to sell stolen goods and harassing passers-by on a regular basis.
Now, Highland councillors will decide on Wednesday whether to introduce a one-year moratorium on any new HMOs in the centre up to 1st November next year.
It is understood planning officials are recommending the move following a six-week public consultation on five options on the concentration of such properties.
Mike Smith, manager of the Inverness Business Improvement District (BID), said the ban would be welcomed.
"There is an over-concentration in the centre which is detrimental to the ambience of that area and we need to work together with other people to resolve that," he said.
A moratorium would also provide an opportunity for a wider review of the arrangements for those HMO residents causing problems.
"We appreciate not every resident is causing a problem," Mr Smith continued. "Some residents are causing antisocial and criminal problems for businesses and we think there needs to be a co-ordinated approach to tidying it up."
But Victorian Market Traders’ Association chairman Mark Burnside believes it does not go far enough and the ban should be permanent.
"A one-year moratorium doesn’t get rid of the problem," he maintained. "It just delays it.
"Someone needs to be made more accountable for the issues caused by people living in HMOs".
Concerns are regularly raised with Inverness Central councillor Janet Campbell.
"We do, of course, have an obligation to our homeless people both as a society and as a local authority," she said.
"However, over-provision of HMOs in any one area presents its own problems."
But Highland Homeless Trust director, Dr Paul Monaghan, believes a moratorium will not have any impact on antisocial behaviour in the city centre and that HMO tenants are being unfairly blamed for the problems.
"They are being stigmatised and targeted and blamed for problems which are not of their making," he maintained.
"There is strong evidence to suggest that perceived problems of antisocial behaviour are caused by visitors to the city centre and not by individuals who live in the city centre."
Councillor Thomas Prag (Inverness South) also stressed that an HMO did not equate to antisocial behaviour.
However, he believes a one-year ban would be a step in the right direction and would allow a co-ordinated approach to HMOs to be developed.
"It goes right across planning, licensing, housing, social work," he said.
"It is an issue which many offices of the council have to deal with and it needs a strategy were all these folk can contribute," he said.
