Annex B
Under the homelessness legislation, local
housing authorities must consider all applications made to them
for accommodation or assistance in obtaining accommodation.
If an authority consider they have reason
to believe that an applicant may be homeless or likely to become
homeless within 28 days, they must make inquiries to determine
whether the applicant is eligible for assistance and whether any
duty is owed to the applicant under the homelessness legislation.
If the authority have reason to believe
the applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and fall
within a priority need group, they also have an interim duty to
secure suitable accommodation until they have finished their inquiries
and decided whether any duty is owed.
If the authority decide that the applicant
is eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and falls
within a priority need group, they have a duty to secure suitable
accommodation until a settled home becomes available (the "main
homelessness duty"). In most cases, applicants are initially
provided with temporary accommodation, and in around 70% of cases
the main homelessness duty is ultimately brought to an end with
an offer of social housing allocated through the housing register.
Certain categories of persons from abroad
are ineligible for homelessness assistance (except advice and
information, which must be made available free of charge to everyone
in the district).
The priority need categories include,
among others, applicants whose household includes a child or a
pregnant woman and applicants who are vulnerable in some way,
including as a result of leaving their home because of violence.
Communities and Local Government's primary
source of data on statutorily homeless households is the quarterly
P1E return titled Local Authority activity under homelessness
provisions of the 1996 Housing Act. Completion of these returns
is not mandatory for LAs but the final response rate is currently
around 95%.
There are four tables of data that would
be the most relevant and these are attached.
— Table 626 shows the number
and percentage of homeless households in priority need accepted
by local authorities, by Ethnicity.
— Table 632: shows the number
of homeless households accepted by local authorities, by Priority
Need category.
— Table 633: show the number
of homeless households accepted by local authorities, by Reason
for Loss of Last settled Home.
— Table 637: shows the number
of decisions taken by local authorities under the 1996 Housing
Act on applications from eligible households.
Registered Social Landlords also grant
social tenancies and they also record the numbers of people granted
new lettings and for what reason (via COntinuous REcording). In
2006-07, 6.2% of Registered Social landlord lettings were made
to tenants who reported the reason they left their last settled
home was domestic violence (Source: RSL CORE).
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