Homelessness
- Do you need housing assistance?
- Are you eligible for assistance?
- Are you homeless?
- Do you have a priority need for housing?
- Are you intentionally homeless?
- Do you have a local connection?
Do you need housing assistance?
This could include a whole range of situations such as:
Wanting to move somewhere else; living in very overcrowded housing or in poor conditions; difficulty affording your rent or mortgage; your landlord has told you to leave; a breakdown of your relationship with your partner or family means you have to leave your home; you are suffering domestic violence or other harassment; or any other housing problem.
Herefordshire Council offers a comprehensive Housing Options Service to assist. Anyone approaching the Council in need of housing assistance will have an interview with a Housing Options Officer who will help clarify the problem and identify the potential solutions available and provide assistance in taking advantage of them, whether they be to resolve problems within the current home or to obtain alternative housing.
Alternative housing options can include:
- Private rented housing
- Low cost ownership
- Applying for housing through Home Point - Herefordshire's choice based lettings scheme
Homelessness
The Council is committed wherever possible to preventing homelessness, so anyone who approaches the council because they believe they are, or are going to be, homeless, will initially see an Options Officer to assess whether homelessness can actually be prevented. Where appropriate you would then be referred on to a specialist Homelessness Prevention Officer to provide ongoing assistance.
Homelessness prevention covers a range of activities including:
- Advice on your housing rights - if a landlord has told you to go, are they entitled to do this?
- Advice and assistance with welfare benefits, including Housing Benefit, if you are having difficulty paying your rent;
- Negotiation with landlords to resolve any problems that might have led to them asking you to leave;
- For 16 and 17 year olds who are being asked to leave the family home, mediation with family members to address the problems that have led to this;
- If it is not possible to prevent loss of the current home, advice and assistance in securing suitable alternative housing.
Where it is clear that prevention is not an option the Council will carry out an assessment to determine what duty it has to provide help, this will depend upon a range of factors which are covered by the homelessness legislation which is Part VII of the Housing Act 1996.
In assessing an application the council is required to consider the following:
Are you eligible for assistance?
This relates to your immigration status, if your immigration status is such that you are not entitled to public funds such as welfare benefits, then you will not be eligible for any assistance even if you are homeless. The only duty that the council will have in this situation is to provide advice.
If the council is satisfied that you are eligible, we will then consider whether you are homeless.
Are you homeless?
The definition of homelessness in the legislation is that a person is homeless if there is nowhere, in the UK or elsewhere, that is available for occupation by them and anyone who normally lives with them as a member of their family or who it would be reasonable to expect to live with them as a member of their family. The council must consider:
- Is there anywhere that you are legally entitled to occupy?
- If there is, can you actually gain entry to it?
- If your home is a caravan, houseboat or other mobile form of housing, is there anywhere you are entitled to park it and live in it?
- Would you be at risk of domestic or other violence if you continued to occupy the home?
- Is there any other strong reason why it would not be reasonable for you to continue to occupy the home?
If the council is satisfied that you are not homeless today, or will not become homeless within the next 28 days, there will be no further duty to assist, unless there is a risk of homelessness in the future, in which case we will provide advice and possibly assistance to try and prevent that homelessness occurring.
If the council is satisfied that you are both eligible for assistance and homeless, we will go on to consider whether you have a priority need for housing.
Do you have a priority need for housing?
The homelessness legislation state that the following have a priority need:
- someone who is pregnant, or who lives with a woman who is pregnant;
- someone with dependent children living with them, or if not currently living with them who it would be reasonable to expect to live with them;
- someone who is homeless because of an emergency such as a fire or a flood;
- someone who is vulnerable because of old age, illness, mental illness or disability or physical disability or any other special reason;
- someone who is vulnerable because of an institutional background in council care, the armed forces or in custody;
- someone who is vulnerable because they are homeless due to violence.
Assessments of vulnerability are for the council to make, for example a person is not automatically in priority if they are old or have an illness or have an institutional background, it is for the council to determine the effect that this has upon them and whether as a result they would be at greater risk of harm or injury whilst homeless than the majority of other homeless applicants.
If the council decides that you do not have a priority need the only duty will be to give advice and assistance in obtaining alternative housing.
If we decide that you are eligible, homeless and in priority need, we will then consider whether you have made yourself intentionally homeless.
Are you intentionally homeless?
A person is intentionally homeless if their homelessness has resulted from their behaviour, such as choosing to leave a home or give up a tenancy, or being evicted from a property for rent arrears or nuisance behaviour. A person will not be intentionally homeless if the housing they have left was not reasonable to occupy, or they were at risk of violence in the home. They will also not be intentionally homeless if they have acted in good faith whilst unaware of a relevant fact.
If the council decides that you are intentionally homeless we will only have to provide you with temporary accommodation for a short period to give you a chance to find somewhere else to live, this will normally be 28 days.
If we decide that you are eligible, you are homeless, you do have a priority and you are not intentionally homeless, we will then consider whether you have a local connection with Herefordshire.
Do you have a local connection?
If you do not have a local connection with Herefordshire but do have a connection with another authority, we will normally make a referral to that authority to provide housing, unless you would be at risk of domestic or other violence in that area. You will have a local connection with Herefordshire if:
- You are normally resident in the county - this means you should have lived in the county for six of the last twelve months, or alternatively for three out of the last five years;
- If you are working in Herefordshire;
- If you have immediate family in Herefordshire who have lived here for at least five years themselves
- If there are any other particularly strong reasons that give you a connection with the area.
Temporary housing
It is often not possible to make an immediate decision as to what duty is owed to a homeless applicant, and the council will sometimes provide temporary accommodation whilst investigating what duty is owed. Temporary housing not be provided where we can be satisfied at the initial interview that the applicant is not homeless or does not have a priority need for housing.
If the council does have to provide temporary accommodation it will meet your housing needs, but due to high demand for housing and the lack of available temporary housing it may well be in a Bed and Breakfast hotel initially, or in a hostel, and it may be anywhere within the county. In extreme circumstances if nothing else is available it may even be outside the county. If the council provides temporary housing this is not accepting any ongoing duty, it is only whilst the application is assessed.
The full housing duty
If the council decides that you are eligible and homeless, that you do have a priority need, are not intentionally homeless and do have a local connection, the council will be under a duty to provide you with temporary housing whilst you seek a long term housing solution.
Again, this temporary accommodation may be a bed and breakfast hotel, or a hostel, and we cannot guarantee that it will be in an area of the county where you wish to live.
When accepted for the full housing duty you will be awarded Priority status on the Home Point allocation scheme and will be able to bid for properties as they are advertised. You will have sixteen weeks to make bids, and if at the end of that time you have not obtained a housing association tenancy, a review of your bidding history will be carried out. If we are satisfied that you are not bidding realistically we will start making bids on your behalf for any properties appropriate to your needs that are advertised. If one of these bids is successful it will be made as an offer of a tenancy to you.
You must be aware that we only have a duty to make one such offer, and if you refuse an offer of suitable housing it will bring an end to any housing duty that we owe you, and you will be required to leave the temporary housing that we have provided. If this happens you will also lose the priority status that you were awarded on Home Point.
Unhappy with our decision?
If you are unhappy with the decision that has been made on your homeless application or relating to the suitability of housing that has been offered, you have a right to seek a review of the council's decision. You must request your review within 21 days of being notified of the council's decision and you have a right to seek advice and assistance from an advice centre or solicitor for help with putting your case for review.
Where you have been offered housing and wish to seek a review of the suitability you have a right to both accept the offer and request a review.
