Homelessness

image of a stack of suitcases

The Council has a duty to assist people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Our first priority is to try and prevent people becoming homeless, so it is vital we are contacted as early as possible when a housing problem occurs.

Please see below for more information:

You can contact our Housing Advice Team on 01362 656870 or by email at housing.advice@breckland.gov.u

The Council operates a homelessness prevention service through our Housing Advice team, who will seek to resolve your housing problems before they reach the point where you lose your home. We will give you advice and assistance both before and during any homeless application to carry out this duty. This may include helping you to stay in your home, negotiating with your householder or landlord to allow you to stay (either permanently or so you can plan to move on in an organised way), or help you to find alternative accommodation through other housing options.

When you contact the Council with a housing problem, one of our Housing Advisory Officers will take details of your circumstances and guide you through your options. We may wish to interview you, either at our offices or at your home, and an application as homeless may be taken from you.

See our ‘Housing Advice’ section for further details of the help we can offer.

What is a homelessness application?

The Council has a duty to investigate circumstances where a person claims to be homeless or threatened with homelessness. In some cases this may lead to a formal application being taken, and a decision reached about whether the Council has a duty to provide accommodation for you and your household.

The Housing Act 1996 (Part VII - Homelessness), as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002 is the law governing when and how councils take applications from homeless people. There is also a Code of Guidance for Local Authorities produced by the Government which outlines how applications should be assessed and what information we need to pass onto you. The law relating to homelessness is complex, but the following information explains the procedures and duties the Council will follow if an application as homeless is taken from you.

When are homelessness applications taken?

The Council will take an application from you when we have reason to believe you are homeless or are likely to become homeless within 28 days. This does not mean you should not approach us until then – you should contact us as soon as possible when you have so we can help you. We will arrange for you to be interviewed by an experienced Housing Advisory Officer who will assess whether a formal application should be taken from you.

You should not leave your accommodation, unless you are not safe or the Court has ordered you to do so, without first taking advice.

What will happen if a homelessness application is taken?

If the Council Takes a homelessness application from you, we will look at your circumstances and assess whether you fit the criteria laid down by law which sets out who we can directly assist by providing accommodation.

·We will assess whether you are eligible for assistance, so we will ask you to provide some valid ID showing you are eligible to receive help from public funds (such as birth certificate, passport, driving licence or other valid form of ID). If you are a UK citizen normally resident in this country, or a worker from some EU countries, you will automatically be eligible unless there are some exceptional circumstances.

If you are not eligible for assistance the Council is extremely limited in what we can do to help you, but we may put you in contact with organisations who can assist you.

·The Council will look at whether you are homeless, so it is very important you provide all paperwork you have regarding the possible loss of your accommodation, such as notice from your landlord or notice of possession proceedings from your lender, or information regarding your income and expenditure if you feel you cannot afford to remain in your home.

In order for the Council to accept that you are homeless or threatened with homelessness we will look at whether you meet one of the following conditions:

You have nowhere to live in the UK or anywhere in the world
You have a home but cannot return to it because you or a member of your family would be at risk of violence there
You have a home but have been locked out and cannot secure entry to it
Your home is a mobile home, caravan boat or other moveable structure and you have nowhere to put it legally
You are living with friends or relatives and have been asked to leave
You have a home but it is unreasonable for you to continue to live there.

Breckland Council will assess whether you fall into the category of having a ‘priority need’ for assistance. This category sets out those people to whom the Council has a duty beyond that of giving advice and assistance. In order to be assessed as having a priority need for assistance you must :

Be pregnant, or living with an expectant mother;
Have dependant children normally resident with you;
Have a physical or mental health problem which means you would come to more harm or detriment than an ‘average’ person were you to become homeless;
Be institutionalised to the extent that you are unable to cope with independent living (including time spent in the Armed Forces);
Be 16/17 years old;
Be vulnerable as a result of fleeing violence or as a result of being in care;
Be vulnerable due to old age
Be vulnerable for any other special reason.

If you feel that you, or a member of your household, falls into one of the above categories, it is possible that your household may have a priority need for assistance. If you do not fall into the above categories, the help we can offer is limited to offering advice and assistance only. If you have any supporting information regarding any possible priority need, such as details of a medical condition or proof of receipt of Child Benefit, you will be asked to provide this.

The Council will then examine whether you lost, or are losing, your home due to an intentional act or omission on your part, such as failing to pay your rent when you had the means to do so, or leaving a property when it was reasonable for you to continue to live there.

If the Council decides that you are intentionally homeless we do not have a duty to provide you with permanent accommodation, but we will still provide you with advice and assistance to find accommodation.

The Council will finally look at whether you have a local connection to this district, either through your own or a close family member’s residency, or through employment or the fact that it would be unsafe for you to return to a district where you do have a connection. If you fulfil all the other criteria, but do not have a local connection to this area, you would be referred back to a district where you have a safe local connection, if there is one.

The above assessment criteria will be discussed in more detail if and when a homelessness application is taken under the terms of the above legislation.

The Council has a target of 33 working days (about 6 weeks) within which to make a decision about whether we will accept a duty to provide accommodation for you and your household. If we have examined your circumstances and have found that you are eligible for assistance, homeless, have a priority need for assistance, have not made yourself intentionally homeless, and have a local connection to the Breckland district then we will normally accept a duty to rehouse you. This means we will work with you to identify and access suitable settled accommodation for you and your household in housing association or private housing. We will always inform you in writing of our decision and our reasons for making it.

For further information see the below downloadable leaflet

Leaflet ‘ advice for homeless and potentially homeless in breckland’

Temporary Accommodation

If your application has not reached the stage at which a decision can be made, or a positive decision has been reached but no suitable settled accommodation identified by the time you must leave your property, the Council may have a duty to accommodate you on an interim basis if the Council believes you have a priority need. This may mean a stay in bed and breakfast or hostel accommodation out of your areas of choice.

The Council is required not to place families with children or pregnant women in bed and breakfast accommodation except in emergency and for no for longer than 6 weeks. Such families will be moved to either our homeless persons hostel or self-contained temporary accommodation as quickly as practicable, depending on availability. Women fleeing domestic violence may apply from a refuge, and remain there until rehoused if appropriate.

If the Council does not then accept a duty to rehouse you, you will be given a reasonable period of time to make alternative arrangements before we ask you to leave temporary accommodation, unless we believe you have accommodation you can return to immediately.

For further information see the below downloadable leafet

Leaflet ‘ a guide to temporary accommodation’

What if I don’t agree with the Council’s decision?

All homelessness applicants may request a review of their homelessness application if they are unhappy with the decision made or the accommodation provided following the decision.

You may make the request either verbally or in writing, within 21 days of being notified of the decision or offer of accommodation. You do not have to give reasons for doing so, but it may help your review request if you give your reasons for requesting the review, and detail any information you think the Council has either missed, or has got wrong.

Once your review request has been received, the Reviewing Officer, who is a senior officer not involved with the original decision, will discuss your case with the Housing Advisory Officer who made the decision, challenge the decision, and ensure proper procedure has been followed.

If the reviewing officer considers it necessary, further enquires may be made into the circumstances of your homelessness and you may be re-interviewed.

The Council has 56 days (8 weeks) to consider your review application, and will ask you for an extension if the review cannot be completed during this time. You will be notified of the decision. Where possible this will be by telephone. Written notification will follow within 3 working days, giving full reasons for the review decision.

If you are still not happy with the review decision, you can appeal to the County Court on a point of law (that the Council has not followed the proper procedure) within 21 days of receiving the written notification of the Council’s review decision.

You may wish to contact a solicitor or independent advice agency such as a Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter (the charity for homeless and poorly housed people) for advice and assistance. Contacts details are listed in our ‘Useful Contacts’ section.

For further information see the below downloadable leafet

Leaflet ‘ a guide to homelessness reviews’

DOWNLOADS

You will need the Adobe Reader software to view these documents, it is available by clicking this link that will open in a new browser window - you can close that window after the download and our website will still be available for you to browse.

advice for homeless and potentially homeless in breckland (PDF document, 1.3Mb)

‘ a guide to temporary accommodation’ (PDF document, 2.0Mb)

‘ a guide to homelessness reviews’ (PDF document, 1.3Mb)