UK Homelessness

matt10001

I did not know that the UK government has passed [FONT=&quot]a law that means that the Council has no duty towards a single homeless man, not Council policy. So basically if I was going to become homeless which could happen quite easily, if I lose my job. Then the council would not be able to help.
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tomtontom

I didn't realise the council had ever had a responsibility towards healthy adults without children.

Is there supposed to be a link in your post? The text is blue but I'm pressing it and it's not doing anything!

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Could you let us know when it was passed and what this legislation is called?

dippy3103

I thought that had been the case for sometime- no duty to a single, healthy adult without kids.

[Deleted User]

As far as I am aware a council has a duty towards the vulnerable (mentally or physically ill, drug addicts and alcoholics) and families with children. They usually offer advice to the young and healthy but don't have any obligations to rehouse them.

I don't know what the law is with regards to this. I do know that there can be a great difference in how councils deal with even these obligations, so I assume that's where 'policy' comes into it. Unfortunately if the homeless could afford to take a council to court for negligence, they wouldn't be homeless. I do suspect there is negligence going on otherwise the term 'gatekeeping' wouldn't even exist.

sangie595

deannatrois wrote: »

As far as I am aware a council has a duty towards the vulnerable (mentally or physically ill, drug addicts and alcoholics) and families with children. They usually offer advice to the young and healthy but don't have any obligations to rehouse them.

I don't know what the law is with regards to this. I do know that there can be a great difference in how councils deal with even these obligations, so I assume that's where 'policy' comes into it. Unfortunately if the homeless could afford to take a council to court for negligence, they wouldn't be homeless. I do suspect there is negligence going on otherwise the term 'gatekeeping' wouldn't even exist.

Whose "negligence"? Councils may have a statutory responsibility for the vulnerable, but responsibilities don't add up to resources and money. Due to government legislation public housing stock has been sold off in vast numbers at prices up to 70% discounted from market value. Building of council stock has been severely limited by available money, and once it is built, it becomes subject to the right to buy again, so it disappears from the stock as soon as people qualify. Last year the government extended the right to buy scheme - Shelter reported that in some London boroughs this would mean that up to 97% of council stock would be sold. Much of the new stock can only be funded under private finance initiatives - in effect built by private builders, and then paid for by Councils for many years to come, often with money still owed to the builders after the property has been sold!

The local housing allowance is set by statutory regulation, and who it is available to under what conditions is also governed by the Government, not by local councils. Council social services have severe funding gaps - the difference between what they ought to do and what they can afford to do. Councils have no powers to force landlords to house people. Even social providers such as housing associations cannot deal with the demand, and are also now subject to enforced sell off under the right to buy schemes.

Social workers are reporting that their caseloads exceed the safe limits, some by as many as 30 additional cases. That can mean a social worker may be supporting as many as 50 - 80 people. Sickness and turnover rates are high, meaning that staff end up supporting even more people. Virtually every council is constantly trying to recruit more staff - but the more they spend on staff, the less they have to spend on the services they need to support the people.

And that is just a small part of the iceberg. The support task assigned to councils is not adequately or fairly resourced, and that is the fault of government. Keeping council tax bills static may be a great soundbite at election time, but it is poor financial planning for public services which are facing increasing demand, quite often because of the policies of government in the first place. Selling off services to benefit a few at the expense of the many is a government policy. Privatising support services for the vulnerable is a government policy, and again comes at a cost.

HappyMJ

matt10001 wrote: »

I did not know that the UK government has passed [FONT=&quot]a law that means that the Council has no duty towards a single homeless man, not Council policy. So basically if I was going to become homeless which could happen quite easily, if I lose my job. Then the council would not be able to help.
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They do help. The council has an housing options team who will discuss your options with you to keep your current home. They will not re-house you but they'll tell you what you can claim for i.e unemployed and looking for work you can claim JSA and housing benefit if you're renting or SMI if you have a mortgage. They'll tell you about schemes that are available to help with a deposit on another property and what agencies are HB friendly (usually none).

If there's nothing stopping you from working apart from the lack of jobs in your area then no they won't do much at all. You would have to be resourceful enough yourself to look for work elsewhere.

ab1982

There seems to be a lot more homeless folk on the streets at weekend near me, maybe Manchester council have a duty to home people Monday to Friday only.

SailorSam

Did anyone watch those programmes a few weeks ago when 'celebrities' spending a week sleeping on the streets of London to show us what it was really like and how easy the average person could find themselves in that position.
I watched the first one but thought, how near to the truth is this ?
Each of the celebrities had a camera crew with them 24hrs, and no doubt there will have been 'minders' behind the camera in case of any violence against the stars of the show.

NYM

There is really no solution to the problem. People are entitled to help but that doesn't necessarily translate into giving them a home. Ultimately, people have to be realistic in their expectations.

HappyMJ has explained what is and isn't available

worried_jim

ab1982 wrote: »

There seems to be a lot more homeless folk on the streets at weekend near me, maybe Manchester council have a duty to home people Monday to Friday only.

Begging pays more at the weekends as there are more people out. They aren't really homeless.