| Related Information |
| Homelessness Strategy |
| Housing Option Guide |
| Temporary Accommodation Strategy |
| Allocations Policy |
| Support Agencies |
| Youth Information Knowhere to go? |
| Housing Area Maps |
| Useful Contacts |
This section discusses how initial approaches should be handled, including the recording of the results of inquiries.
It is important that homeless applications are considered in the overall context of providing a service to those in housing need. Staff should adopt a person-centred approach in order to deliver a response tailored to the needs of the individual applicant. Staff should be aware that where a person has applied for accommodation, or for assistance in obtaining accommodation and there is reason to believe that they are in fact homeless or threatened with homelessness then inquiries must be carried out to ascertain the duty owed to the household under the homelessness legislation.
Initial identification of homelessness or threatened homelessness may be via the housing department or other routes such as social work or Throughcare. South Ayrshire Council's corporate responsibility towards applicants should ensure they are helped appropriately and effectively, and all relevant departments must play a part in discharging this responsibility.
This Council has a duty to provide good quality objective housing advice on a range of housing options of which accessing local authority or housing association accommodation via a homeless application is one. Staff responsible for dealing with a homeless application should be trained to ensure provision of such advice. At all times, staff must be aware that should an individual wish to make a homeless application, they are within their legal rights to do so, and housing staff must accept that application. Staff should ensure that applicants are aware of their legal rights or where they may receive information on these.
Avoidance of first screening of applicants
It is very important that people presenting themselves as homeless are interviewed only by those staff trained in the details of the homelessness legislation. Applicants must never be 'screened' or 'filtered out' by reception staff at public counters. Any information which is imparted during the course of an interview should be carefully recorded and dated on the standard interview forms. It is also a requirement that an HLI return - for the Scottish Government - is completed for each application made.
At the initial interview, each applicant should receive a clear and simple explanation of the local authority's procedures for handling homelessness applications, including the various steps involved and likely timetables for each; and of the decisions a local authority can take on the application. There is a written as well as a verbal explanation available.
The Council will provide high quality advice and assistance in order to prevent or alleviate homelessness. This will be tailored to individual needs and will be provided by either the Council or a specialist agency. In the case of the latter, officers will make arrangements to assist the individual to access these services. In many cases Tenancy Support Workers will act on referrals from the Homeless Section to provide support to applicants which will be tailored to their individual needs. In some instances the Council can arrange an interview outside the office, for example if the applicant is in hospital or they are unable to call at the office due to illness.
South Ayrshire Council also provides a full housing advice service at Ailsa Hospital on a weekly basis. This is carried out by Housing Assistants and Homeless Officers and covers all aspects of the housing service. A monitoring sheet is completed and the information thereon is collated and evaluated at management level.
The Council can also help applicants to access advocacy services. In relation to financial issues the Council provide comprehensive Debt Counselling and Welfare Rights advice through its Money Advice Service.
Where an individual requires support, the Council will both provide and assist the individual to access support from partner agencies i.e. Social Work, Belhaven, Blue Triangle, Quarriers, Health Board etc.
When a person applies to this Council under the homelessness legislation, it has to make inquiries into the application in sequence. It has to be satisfied that the applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness and, if so, whether the applicant has a priority need and whether he or she became homeless or threatened with homelessness intentionally. If so, it has the power to decide whether the applicant does not have a local connection with the district but does with another local authority in The United Kingdom . If the applicant is young, homeless and between 16 to 21 years of age cognisance of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 should be taken with regards to the young person's expressed wishes being taken into account .
South Ayrshire Council aim to:
Progress of applications
Applicants should be kept well informed of the progress of their application. Inquiries into applications should be careful, but not over elaborate. A long period of uncertainty is bad for the applicant, and may cost the Council money if it has a duty to keep people in temporary accommodation while completing its inquiries.
RecordingSouth Ayrshire Council have a standard system of recording all applications, including verbal approaches, to assist us in monitoring and ensuring policies and procedures are implemented, including, where appropriate, referrals to other local authorities. Effective recording systems enable this Council to monitor and track the housing careers of applicants. This can highlight a need to review current policies. Items, which should be recorded in relation to an application are all on our Homeless Application Form and include:
As the subjects under discussion are invariably of a highly personal nature, it is essential that the interview is conducted in a private room. It should also be recognised that homeless people are often under great stress, and it is therefore very important that they are treated in a courteous and sympathetic fashion at all times. Applicants are also entitled to have a family member, friend or adviser present during the interview. In addition, women who have suffered, or are in fear of, domestic violence should, wherever possible, be given the option of being interviewed by a female member of staff. If there are difficulties in the interview, the interview should be terminated and an offer of a further interview, that day, should be made. If the interviewee(s) are particularly difficult/threatening the police should be called. Applicants should be assured that the information they give will be treated as confidential, with any exceptions being specified. (The information may be subject to the Data Protection Act.)
However, the applicant should be advised that any information provided in support of the application may have to be verified by the Council. If the applicant refuses to divulge information essential to the determination of the application and the interviewing officer is satisfied that the applicant's refusal is not founded on fear, then the applicant should be advised that the Council cannot proceed further with the application.
Cases involving violence or abuse
In cases involving violence or threats of violence, or sexual or other abuse the applicant may be in considerable distress. Wherever possible in such cases, a person of the same sex as the applicant should conduct the interview. There should be arrangements for social work assistance to be available if required, from statutory or voluntary services. If the applicant reports violence, the local authority should take reasonable steps to obtain information to support the applicant's case. However, staff should never seek proof from the alleged perpetrator. If it proves impossible to obtain confirming evidence of violence or the threat of violence, the applicant's expressed fears should be considered as sufficient evidence.
Applicants should be advised of their rights to take action against the perpetrators of violence, but it is for them to decide whether to use these rights in the light of their individual circumstances, bearing in mind that they may fear this will provoke further violence. In cases of sexual abuse, particularly of children or young people, the victim may be reluctant to mention this initially. Staff should therefore be alert to the possibility that there may be reasons, e.g. for leaving a family home abruptly, which the applicant is not divulging. If the applicant alleges assault or sexual abuse of a child, the homelessness officer should advise him or her of their responsibility to discuss this with the social work department, so that any necessary help and protection for the child and applicant can be arranged.
Links with Community Care Assessments
The procedure for sharing information about homeless applicants within housing, social work, health and support services is carried out through the single shared assessment process. The initial homelessness inquiries should be both as thorough as the complexity of the case demands, and as quick as the urgency of the case requires. In assessing applications under the homelessness legislation, staff should be alert to the possibility that an applicant needs to be referred because of non-housing problems to social work, health, or other agencies for advice or assistance, including a community care assessment. In practice this should be carried out by a Homeless Officer from the Homeless Section.
Such needs may be particularly likely to come to light when assessing whether a person is vulnerable and hence in priority need. Even if the local authority has no duties under the homelessness legislation because the person is neither homeless nor potentially homeless, a referral for advice or assistance under other legislation, for example the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, may be appropriate. A community care assessment may sometimes be required before an applicant is assigned specialist housing appropriate to his or her needs, for example housing designed for ambulant disabled people, or domiciliary care may be required to enable a person to live in the community. Even when support is not required, access to some specialist housing may still involve social work assessment. On the other hand, applicants should not be referred for a community care assessment where support provided by the housing department alone is sufficient. Colleagues in Social work are aware that as homeless people are often in urgent need of accommodation, they may require a fast track community care assessment.
It is imperative that the inquiries referred to in this section are actually carried out. In a number of Court cases, the local authority decision was quashed simply because it had failed to make proper inquiries. To quote one of the leading authorities on homelessness legislation, 'It is of fundamental importance that the inquiries conducted by the local authority are rigorous and sufficiently detailed to enable them to obtain the information which is necessary for them to determine the nature and level of assistance they are obliged to provide.'
False or Misleading Statements
Under section 40(1) of the Act, a person is guilty of an offence if he knowingly or recklessly makes a statement which is false or knowingly withholds information which the local authority has reasonably required him to give it, with the intention of inducing the local authority to believe that he or another person is:
A person guilty of such an offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding Level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5,000) (section 40(4)).
The applicant is obliged by section 40(2) of the Act to notify the local authority as soon as possible of any change in the facts material to his or her application which occurs before he or she receives notification of the local authority's decision on his or her application (but not changes arising afterthe decision is notified). However, the local authority has a duty to explain to the applicant, in ordinary language, that he or she must report such changes in their circumstances, and that if this is not done the applicant would be guilty of an offence. The applicant will not be guilty if he or she can show that they had a reasonable excuse for not notifying a change, or that the necessary explanation was not given by the local authority (section 40(3)).
Print
View