“As regards priorities, the scheme shall… be framed so as to secure that reasonable preference is given to – (a) people who are homeless (within the meaning of Part VII); (b) people who are owed a duty by any local housing authority under section 190(2), 193(2) or 195(2)… or who are occupying accommodation secured by any such authority under section 192(3); (c) people occupying insanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions…”
“(1) If: (a) a person applies to a housing authority for accommodation or for assistance in obtaining accommodation; and (b) the authority have reason to believe that he may be homeless or threatened with homelessness; the authority shall make appropriate inquiries. (2) In subsection (1) above ‘appropriate inquiries’ means: (a) such inquiries as are necessary to satisfy the authority whether the person who applied to them is homeless or threatened with homelessness; and (b) if the authority are satisfied that he is homeless or threatened with homelessness, any further inquiries necessary to satisfy them: (i) whether he has a priority need; and (ii) whether he became homeless or threatened with homelessness intentionally. (3) … (4) If the authority have reason to believe that the person who applied to them may be homeless and have a priority need, they shall secure that accommodation is made available for his occupation pending any decision which they may make as a result of their inquiries…”
“A person shall not be treated as having accommodation unless it is accommodation which it would be reasonable for a person to continue to occupy.”
“In determining whether it would be, or would have been, reasonable for a person to continue to occupy accommodation, regard may be had to the general circumstances prevailing in relation to housing in the district of the local housing authority to whom he has applied for accommodation or for assistance in obtaining accommodation.”
“If the local authority have reason to believe that an applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and has a priority need, they shall secure that accommodation is available for his occupation pending a decision as to the duty (if any) owed to him under the following provisions of this Part.”
“A local authority may discharge their housing functions under this Part only in the following ways – (a) by securing that suitable accommodation provided by them is available, (b) by securing that he obtains suitable accommodation from some other person, or (c) by giving him such advice and assistance as will secure that suitable accommodation is available from some other person.” (a) by securing that suitable accommodation provided by them is available, (b) by securing that he obtains suitable accommodation from some other person, or (c) by giving him such advice and assistance as will secure that suitable accommodation is available from some other person.”
“Housing authorities should ensure that the implications and likely outcomes of the available housing options are made clear to all applicants, including the distinction between having a priority need for accommodation under Part VII and being in a ‘reasonable preference’ category for an allocation of housing under Part VI. Authorities must not avoid their obligations under Part VII (especially the duty to make inquiries under s184), but it is open to them to suggest alternative solutions in cases of potential homelessness where these would be appropriate and acceptable to the applicant.”
“6.15 The obligation to make inquiries, and satisfy itself whether a duty is owed, rests with the housing authority and it is not for applicants to ‘prove their case’. Applicants should always be given the opportunity to explain their circumstances fully, particularly on matters that could lead to a decision against their interests, for example, a decision that an applicant is intentionally homeless. 6.16 Housing authorities should deal with inquiries as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that they are thorough and, in any particular case, sufficient to enable the housing authority to satisfy itself what duty, if any, is owed or what other assistance can be offered. Housing authorities are obliged to begin inquiries as soon as they have reason to believe that an applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness and should aim to carry out an initial interview and preliminary assessment on the day an application is received. An early assessment will be vital to determine whether the housing authority has an immediate duty to secure accommodation under s188.... Wherever possible, it is recommended that housing authorities aim to complete their inquiries and notify the applicant of their decision within 33 working days of accepting a duty to make inquiries under s184. In many cases it should be possible for authorities to complete the inquiries significantly earlier.”
“6.5 If a housing authority has reason to believe that an applicant may be eligible for assistance, homeless and have a priority need, the authority will have an immediate duty under s188 to ensure that suitable accommodation is available for the applicant (and his or her household) pending the completion of the authority’s inquiries and its decision as to what duty, if any, is owed to the applicant under Part VII of the Act. Chapter 7 provides guidance on the interim duty to accommodate. Authorities are reminded that ‘having reason to believe’ is a lower test than ‘being satisfied’.” … 6.6 Applications can be made by any adult to any department of the local authority expressed in any particular form; they need not be expressed as explicitly seeking assistance under Part VII…” … 7.3 The threshold for the duty [to provide interim accommodation] is low as the local authority only has to have a reason to believe that the applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. (See paragraph 6.5 for guidance on the ‘reason to believe’ test.)”
“Whether he applies to the right or the wrong department or authority should not matter. That department or authority should either itself deal with the application or pass it on to what it considers to be the correct department or authority and should tell the homeless person what it has done. It should not tell that person to apply elsewhere. The game of ‘pass the parcel’ has no place in this field.”
“In the vast majority of cases, the making of the application will mean that it is difficult if not impossible for the council not to believe that the applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness. Furthermore, no particular form of application is prescribed…. If it is apparent from what is said by an applicant (for there is no requirement that an application be in writing) or from anything in writing that he may be homeless or threatened with homelessness, the duty is triggered. Thus if a person complains to a council that the conditions in his existing accommodation are so bad that he wants a transfer or needs to find somewhere else, it is likely that the duty will arise because of section 175(3) even if there is no application based specifically on homelessness. Furthermore, there is no power to defer the inquiry which has to be carried out…”
“For the homeless at home, their existing accommodation can never be regarded as suitable, even for a short time, since they are only homeless if it is not reasonable to expect them to continue to live there.”
“… I prefer the approach that this is a matter of the pure construction of the statutory duty imposed by the Act upon the authority, and a pure question of fact whether that statutory duty has been complied with. I fully accept that once one gets past sections 62 and 63, and possibly when one has to pause on section 63 for a time, Wednesbury considerations may arise. But they have not arisen in the case of any of these applicants unless and until their applications have been received and are beginning to be considered pursuant to the statutory provisions by the local authority.”
“In my view the housing authority has to accept genuine applications and consider, on the facts revealed in the application and after any necessary inquiries, whether a duty arises under Part III of the [1985] Act [the equivalent of Part VII of the 2006 Act]. The housing authority has to establish the precedent fact, as it was described by Lord Fraser of Tullybelton in [Khawaja], that an application for housing, in however informal terms, has been made. The question whether an application has been made and whether the housing authority has erred in their approach to this case is a collateral question preceding the main decision-making process. Consequently I agree with Mr Carnwath that if he can demonstrate that the housing authority wrongly excluded an application, this court has the jurisdiction to substitute its own views.”
“In my judgment section 62(1) of the [1985] Act contains a double-barrelled threshold or precedent question of fact which has to be answered in the affirmative if the local housing authority’s duties under Part III of the Act are to come into force. The first part of this question is whether a person has applied to it for accommodation in the sense which I have indicated. The second part is whether the authority have reason to believe that he may be homeless or threatened with homelessness. This is to be distinguished from the Part III duty which follows immediately afterwards in the same sentence, namely, to make such inquiries as are necessary to satisfy themselves as to whether he is homeless or threatened with homelessness. I cannot believe that Parliament intended that whether or not a local housing authority became subject to the duties set out in Part III of the Act should depend upon whether it happened to be credulous or incredulous, myopic or far-sighted. The intention must have been that an objective test should be applied. The authority’s decision on both aspects of this threshold question therefore falls to be reviewed not on Wednesbury principles but on Khawaja principles – does the evidence justify the conclusion…”
“… [W]here… the [local housing] authority have reason to believe that an applicant… may be homeless or threatened with homelessness…”
“Where there is reason to believe that an applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness.”
“…. [U]nder Part VII of the 1996 Act, a number of questions which fall to be considered can be said to involve value judgments which are expressly assigned to the local authority (e.g. whether an applicant is homeless under section 184; and whether an applicant has priority need under section 188)… ”
“Parliament intended the local authority to be the judge of fact. The Act abounds with the formula when, or if, the housing authority are satisfied as to this, or that, or have reason to believe this, or that…. When the existence of non-existence of a fact if left to the judgment and discretion of a public body and that fact involves a broad spectrum ranging from the obvious to the debatable to the just conceivable, it is the duty of the court to leave the decision of that fact to the public body to whom parliament has entrusted the decision-making power save in a case where it is obvious that the public body, consciously or unconsciously, are acting perversely.”
“The second precondition is that the local authority should have reason to believe that the applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness. Again, it would be anomalous if Parliament intended to entrust to the local authority the decision regarding the first precondition but not the second. Further, the question whether a person is homeless depends, among other things, on whether he has accommodation ‘which it would be reasonable for him to continue to occupy’…. Therefore whether the local authority ‘have reason to believe’ that a person may be homeless may involve assessment of the quality of his accommodation. That is a matter for the local authority. Moreover, in [Cocks]…, Lord Bridge said, at page 292, in relation to the analogous provisions of the [1977] Act: ‘It is for the housing authority to decide whether they have reason to believe the matters which will give rise to the duty to inquire or to the temporary housing duty.’ On this issue, therefore, I accept the submission of the local authority that the existence of the facts necessary to give rise to a duty of inquiry under section 62 is a matter for determination by the local authority, and that the courts’ jurisdiction is not to decide the facts but only the more limited jurisdiction of judicial review.”
“It is therefore improbable that the nature, strictness or outcome of such a review would differ according to whether it was conducted under domestic principles or whether it was also required to be conducted by reference to a principle of proportionality derived from Union law.”
“It is for the court to assess how broad the range of rational decisions is in the circumstances of any given case. That must necessarily depend on the significance of the right interfered with, the degree of interference involved. And notably the extent to which, even on a statutory appeal, the court is competent to reassess the balance which the decision-maker was called on to make given the subject matter…. In some cases, the range of rational decisions is so narrow as to determine the outcome.”
“Upon completion of the interview, unless the applicant and the family are at risk of harm, they should be advised to return to the homeless address…”
“In my judgment, the failure of the Council to apply the section 188 criteria in the two cases was symptomatic of a general failure of their practice and procedures. The approach of the Council to their obligations under section 188 at the very least lacks legal coherence and a proper consideration of the relevant section 188 criteria. So far as the Council are concerned that failure had and, in so far as that practice continues, continues to have, the effect of avoiding their obligations under section 188 of the 1996 Act.”
“I have no doubt that, if it has not occurred since March this year, a thorough review of the procedures adopted should be undertaken with the benefit of high level legal advice…”
“Any customer who is contacting us and who is roofless MUST be seen on the same day”
“People must be made aware of their right to make an application if they wish to”
“Are you able to remain at your current accommodation tonight? Date you must leave your current accommodation: … NOTE: If you do not have anywhere to stay tonight, the following questions MUST be answered. a) Did you sleep rough last night? Where did you sleep? b) Give reasons why you do not have anywhere to stay tonight? c) Has a request for temporary accommodation been made within the last 28 days? If yes… [there is then a table for insertion of the date, reason and outcome of such requests]. …”
“This form is only to be completed where temporary accommodation is required tonight and a live Homeless Application exists.”
“The homelessness application itself contains a section on TA [i.e. temporary accommodation], which only opens (‘drops down’) if the applicant is asking for TA at the time it is being completed (first approach or appointment): that section has to be signed and is in terms which make it unnecessary for the applicant also to sign the TA Request. In these cases, therefore, the TA Request form is filled in but the applicant is not asked to sign it. Even if it is known at an appointment that an applicant will want TA in the near future, the drop down form will not be used and the applicant has to return the day it is needed, save in exceptional circumstances. Accordingly, when TA is sought after the application has been completed and signed without the TA section, this form will need to be signed by the applicant, which will normally be on the same day as the TA is to start.” “We do not initiate TA until it is actually needed. TA is a very fast-moving commodity: what is available on a Wednesday may not be available on Thursday nor even will it be known what is available on Thursday. We cannot pay for a night’s accommodation that is not in use and there are other authorities trying to access the same resource – from as far away as London – and once accommodation is taken, perhaps on a moment’s notice, it may not become available again for weeks or even months. Until we know what TA is available on the day, therefore, we cannot tell the applicant where to go. Moreover, so far as practicable, we need to see the applicant at that point: the applicant who says on Wednesday that he needs TA from Thursday may have changed his mind or his circumstances may have changed; often, we cannot hold TA (without booking and paying for it) even for the time it would take to track an applicant down by phone and confirm that he still wants it.” “In some cases, when we have advance notice of need for particular accommodation, e.g. for an exceptionally large family or for a disabled person, we might start the search early, and book it and even pay for it ahead of time if that is the only way to secure it – and if this arises after the homelessness application form has been completed, the same form will be used although ‘tonight’ will in that context be incorrect”
“Whilst conducting the [Home Options] interview, the CSA or SHNO will always make clear to the applicant that this is additional to the applicant’s Part VII rights.”
“Wherever possible, it is recommended that housing authorities aim to complete their inquiries and notify the applicant of their decision within 33 working days of accepting a duty to make inquiries under s184. In many cases it should be possible for authorities to complete the inquiries significantly earlier.”
“If we believe you are homeless or about to become homeless you may need to apply for a home (we call this your ‘homeless application’). When looking at your application for a home: We will aim to write to you within 33 days from the date of your application. If it going to take longer than this we will write to you to tell you.”
“Whether a customer is street homeless or homeless at home is irrelevant to whether I would put them through to interview. They would be referred regardless. I cannot recall whether I asked Ms Edwards ‘Are you homeless today?’, but it is possible that I did so if I was trying to work out how urgent the case was, i.e. whether she needed to be referred to a homelessness appointment immediately so that any request for temporary accommodation could be processed that day, or whether she had accommodation that she could continue to occupy as ‘homeless at home’ until a homelessness appointment could be arranged for a subsequent day.”
“12. When she had calmed down, Ms Edwards explained to me that she wanted a homeless appointment. She explained that she had been living in a housing association property and she was now having another baby so she wanted a larger property. I asked her if she had discussed this with the housing association. She told me that she had and that they had done nothing. Our conversation was not very long: she just repeated that she wanted a homeless appointment. I do not recall if she made any complaint about the property itself or the stairs leading up to it. 13. She had told me that she wanted to make a homeless application, so I arranged an appointment for her to return to do so. I am not authorised to take homeless applications myself. So this is all I could do for her. She did not present as urgently needing assistance or requiring temporary accommodation, so I made an appointment for her on9 April 2015 …. This was the first available appointment that I could book that suited her. If Ms Edwards had required urgent assistance, I would have booked her to see a duty homeless officer [i.e. an SHNO] that same day. 14. … 15. Ms Edwards goes onto complain that I did not offer to provide temporary accommodation. This is not correct. As soon as she said that she wanted homeless assistance, I would have asked her is she needed temporary accommodation that night. If she did, I would have arranged for her to see a [SHNO] that day instead of making an appointment in the future, as that is the procedure when there is urgent need…. As I arranged the appointment for the future, Ms Edwards must have told me that she did not need temporary accommodation that night. The information that Ms Edwards had given me gave me no reason to believe that she could not remain in her accommodation in the short-term.”
“… I believe I was correct to think that she did not need urgent assistance on11 March 2015 but I accept that I should have checked it with her expressly and repeat my apology for failing to do so.”
“I have lived at the above address since 2011. I moved in when I was on my own. It’s a really nice property and I have had no problems with it at all, its just that now I have a daughter and another child on the way the property is not suitable. There are 6 flights of stairs up to my flat. I have trouble getting the baby’s buggy up to my flat and now I’m pregnant I cannot manage it at all. I have had to stay at my mums and nans as I really can’t manage the stairs any more. I am going to stay with my mum while my application is processed as I do not want to do into a hostel or a bed and breakfast with a baby. I’ve done it before and know what its all about. I have asked my HA if they could move me. They sent a load of papers to fill out, they just sent me a list of HA phone numbers. I came into Erdington NO on 12.03.15, I saw Ruth [Farrell] at reception and told her I needed to make a homeless application. I had been told by CLP this is what I needed to do. Ruth asked if I was homeless today and I said no, and it was like she switched off and wasn’t interested. I then saw a gentleman called David [Walker] who booked me a homeless appointment for 09.04.15, and gave me a housing application to complete.”
“On Wednesday11 March 2015 I went to the Erdington [NO] and explained that I wanted to make a homeless application. I also explained that my home was not affordable any more. I was refused help. I was told that I was not entitled to make a homeless application as I am not homeless. I was told that I could not register on the Council’s Home Choice Scheme because I am not allowed any points as I already have a three bedroom property. I was given a transfer form to complete.”
“On18 March 2015 , Ms Cole contacted the [Council] about her arrears of rent. I can see from the [computer system] notes that she was advised that she had only made one payment of£5.00 towards her arrears of rent. I can see that it was noted that Ms Cole said that she could not afford to make any payment towards her arrears as she had other bills to pay. I can see that Ms Cole was given a referral to a debt advice agency and that there was a discussion about making an application for [Discretionary Housing Payment]. I note that a new form to make that application was sent to Ms Cole. Ms Cole was also warned that if her arrears continued to increase then she was at risk of court action. I note that there is no reference to a homeless application made by Ms Cole or any reference to a visit to a Birmingham office on11 March 2015 . If Ms Cole had made such a visit, I would have expected her to mention that when talking about her housing situation but there is no record of it or reference to it in the telephone call.”
“… I advised if applicant requires TA [i.e. temporary accommodation] today or in the future as part of their application then TA can be anywhere in the city and those [sic] they must adhere to the rules which have been signed for. Advised of s188 interim duty and if offered it can be anywhere in the city and that of any type of accommodation including B&B, Hostel and Hotels. Advised they must abide by the rules as we can discharge interim duty if the rules are breached and advised that there is no appeal process for s188. Also advised that if they are in employment then they may be liable for TA costs and advised of how much TA possible costs.”
“I note that I recorded at Question 29 that Ms Saeed said that she did not require temporary accommodation that night. I always ask applicants if they require temporary accommodation – not everyone needs it. Question 29 is a prompt for a conversation about the housing circumstances. I can recall the discussion I had with Ms Saeed about temporary accommodation. It was a discussion: I did not just ask one question. I talked to her about the availability of temporary accommodation and what she wanted to do. I can recall that Ms Saeed said that she did not require temporary accommodation.”
“During the course of the meeting I asked the Council to provide me with temporary accommodation pending a decision in respect of my homeless application. Exhibited to this statement… is a copy of a document that I was given and which is headed “Homeless Application Receipt”
“– change of circumstances & require Temporary Accommodation – contact Erdington Sparkbrook Northfield Office. – Copy of Birth Certificate for New Baby * Child Benefit & Child Tax Details Attended on appt at Newtown to complete Part 7 Homeless Form at 3.00 on 16/3/15”
“If there is no significant change in facts of an applicant’s case, and the reasons for homelessness remain the same as a previous homelessness application, we are not obliged to accept a new homeless application.”
“After confirming with you, your current circumstances on7 January 2015 , you informed me that you have been diagnosed with a Anxiety, Depression and hart [sic] issue but have not been prescribed medication for your complaint. The other facts in your case are based on exactly the same facts as your homeless application on21 January 2014 . I must advise you that we do not consider that there has been any significant change in the facts of your case. We will not therefore be accepting a homeless application from you as a result of your visit on7 January 2015 .”