Homelessness Reduction Act

Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

What does it mean? And why is it being introduced

Why is the HRA being introduced?

The Act is based on the work of an independent panel of experts established by Crisis (the national charity for single homeless people) and draws heavily on changes made to the Welsh homeless legislation in 2015. This highlighted the following issues:

• A lack of meaningful advice and assistance, which in some areas was not tailored to the individual’s needs.
• Some local authorities were only helping at crisis point e. once someone is homeless.
• Local authorities were doing prevention work, but it was outside of the legal framework.
• There was little protection for single people who did not have priority need or those who were found to be ‘intentionally homeless.

Purpose the Act was to reduce homelessness by:

• Improving the quality of the advice available
• Refocusing local authorities on prevention work
• Increasing support for single people
• Join up services to provide better support for people, especially those leaving prison/hospital and other groups at increased risk of homelessness, such as people fleeing domestic abuse and care leavers.

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 came into force in 3^rd April 2018. This was the biggest change in relation to Homelessness legislation for 15 years. The Act would  amend and extended the previous homelessness protection in a number of key ways and means that:

• Council’s must provide more advice assistance and information about homelessness and the prevention of homelessness A review of homelessness legislation found that the information and advice provided to single homeless people needed to be much more effective. Under the Act, everyone in a local housing authority’s district should be able to access free information and advice on preventing homelessness, finding accommodation when homeless, it explains the rights of people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, and the duties of the council, any help that is available from the council and/or anyone else and how to access that help.
• Extension of the period ‘threatened with homelessness’ Under current legislation, an applicant is only considered as threatened with homelessness if they are likely to become homeless within 28 days. Under the new Act, the period ‘threatened with homelessness’ is extended; a person is threatened with homelessness if they are likely to become homeless within 56 days, or if they have been served a valid section 21 notice that expires in 56 days or less.
• Introducing new duties to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible people, regardless of priority need and whether or not they may have made themselves homeless intentionally e.g., if a family is evicted for rent arrears. Currently, most prevention and relief work undertaken by a housing authority sits outside of the statutory framework. This has led to many single homeless people only receiving limited information to support and help them when homeless. Under the new Act, all eligible people who are found to be homeless or threatened with homelessness will be entitled to more tailored support from the housing authority, regardless of priority need and intentionality. Support to prevent homelessness is available to everyone regardless of local connection.
• Introduces assessments and personalised housing plans, setting out the actions housing authorities and individuals will take to secure accommodation Under the Act, housing authorities will conduct an assessment with all eligible applicants who are homeless or threatened with homelessness and develop with them a personalised housing plan.
• Deliberately and unreasonably refusing to cooperate Housing authorities may take certain actions if an applicant deliberately and unreasonably refuses to cooperate with the key steps in their personalised housing plan. This requirement aims to incentivise applicants to engage in prevention and relief work.

What does this mean in practice?

Every person asking a local council for help will have a conversation with a housing officer. The council will decide if you are eligible for help (this means if you are a British national or have a permanent right to reside in the UK). If you are eligible the council need to offer help. If you are at risk of losing your home this is called a prevention duty. If you are already homeless this is called a relief duty.

The council must help you regardless of whether you have a priority need (for example if you have disabilities or dependent children) or if they think you have made yourself intentionally homeless. If you are homeless, the council might have to provide you with temporary housing. Both the relief duty and prevention duty last up to 56 days.

In this time, you and the council will work together to prevent or resolve your homelessness. If you are still homeless at the end of this time, the council will decide if you meet the criteria for temporary housing and settled accommodation. A housing officer will talk to you about what has caused you to be homeless or threatened with homelessness. They will also ask about your housing needs and any other help that you or your family need. You and the council should work together to list the reasonable steps you will both take to help you keep your home or find somewhere suitable to live. These steps need to be right for you and your situation, so they should take your needs into account. The results of this conversation will be written down to form your personalised plan. Both you and the council should regularly review the plan. It’s important that you keep in touch with the council to discuss any changes. They should also keep you updated.

https://www.crisis.org.uk/