1. The Homeless Reduction Act
6th April 2017

2. Background – the national picture

3. Background – the national picture

4. Background – the national picture

5. Housing (Homeless Persons) Act
Homeless Legislation
A brief history
The National Assistance Act & the Welfare State
Housing Act
Becoming law in 1997, it introduced the two year limit on the rehousing duty and broke the link between being accepted and being made a priority offer from council waiting list
2002
This Act stated that LA’s (at that time specifically Social Services) had to help people who had no settled residence, who were in need (age, illness or disability), who were in need of accommodation and who were ordinarily resident
Homelessness Act
1996
This removed the two year limit on the rehousing duty and re-established the link between being accepted as homeless and being given a priority on the waiting list. More importantly it expanded the number of priority need categories and introduced homeless strategies.
Local Government Act
1977
Responsibility for providing help to the poor was transferred to the local council where it remains today
Housing (Homeless Persons) Act
First true piece of homelessness legislation in that it dealt with it specifically. The act later incorporated into the Housing Act 1985 and gave legal definitions of homelessness & priority need: essentially the same ones we have today. In practice it excluded most people without children
1948
1929

6. HRB Background
In 2015, Wales implemented new homeless legislation which had a focus on prevention
Following this, the homeless charity Crisis carried out a mystery shopping exercise to understand rising homeless numbers in England, particularly rough sleepers
From the findings, 16 Local Authorities showed that the quality of housing advice available to homeless households was generally poor, and sometimes unlawful
Additionally, the mystery shoppers found the treatment of homeless people by councils to be unacceptable
The House of Commons Select Committee then undertook an inquiry, with the final report containing far-reaching recommendations published July 2016.
Alongside the report a Homelessness Reduction Bill (HRB), which aimed to improve the support and advice offered to all homeless people, was produced.

7. The Bill
Committee member Bob Blackman MP presented this as a Private Member's Bill to Parliament, with the support of the Committee, with its first reading on 29 June 2016: there was no debate at that stage.
Some LA’s were invited to round table meetings to discuss the proposals, including Swale and Maidstone
The Bill received its second reading on 28 October 2016, when it was passed with overwhelming cross-party support and no objections. The HRB will now proceed to the Committee stage.
The HRB sets out a framework for the biggest changes to homelessness legislation since the 1977 Act was introduced
It proposes several new duties, many of which will require a change in working practices, and additional resources.

8. Definition of homelessness and threatened with homelessness:
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Definition of homelessness and threatened with homelessness:
This clause extends the period during which a local housing authority (LHA) should treat someone as threatened with homelessness from 28 to 56 days, and sets out the action LHAs should take when someone applies for housing assistance, having been served with a notice to end an assured shorthold tenancy.
Duty of Local Housing Authority to provide advice
This clause strengthens and extends the general advice duty, requiring the LHA to design a service that meets the needs of certain groups at risk of homelessness.
Homelessness prevention duties:
this clause includes new duties to those who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, to:
carry out an assessment;
agree a personal housing plan;
help prevent homelessness; and
help to secure accommodation for all eligible applicants, regardless of priority need.

9. Duty owed to those who are homeless:
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Duty owed to those who are homeless:
This clause further amends the 1996 Act, placing a duty on LHAs to relieve homeless for 56 days by helping applicants to secure accommodation regardless of priority need.
Deliberate and unreasonable refusal to cooperate:
This clause also amends the 1996 Act to introduce the provision for the LHA to serve a notice on the applicant where it is considered they have deliberately and unreasonably refused to cooperate with the authority to help prevent their homelessness.
Local connection of a care leaver:
This clause amends the 1996 act to clarify the circumstances under which care leavers should be treated as having a local connection with the LHA.

10. Co-operation between authorities and others
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Review of decisions
This clause proposes additional rights of review in relation to new duties in the HRB.
Co-operation between authorities and others
This new duty applies to all public authorities specified in the regulations to refer cases to the LHA if they consider that a person in England, to whom they exercise functions, may be homeless or is at risk of homelessness.

11. Progress & Delivery of the Bill
DCLG is preparing an impact assessment for the whole Bill to understand the implications for LHAs, financial and otherwise, which derive from the Bill.
The third reading in the House of Lords took place on the 23 March 2017 – final chance to amend the bill but none were made
Royal Assent is expected in April or May
Likely to be enacted in April 2018

12. Next Steps If unable to prevent, the main homeless duty kicks in
LHAs will be required to continue to support a household that has stayed in the property even if 56 days have passed
£48 million allocated by DCLG, increased to £61 million – Labour still unhappy with this
New team of specialist advisors within the DCLG
New Code of Guidance
Change to LA’s front facing services

13. Learning from Wales
More people are seeking help which is up 26%, but there will be some double counting here. Plan for applications to rise by a third
Percentage of case owed prevention and relief duties that have the duty ended positively is far higher than expected – 65% for prevention duty and 45% for the relief duty
11% of those owed the prevention duty had it ended through refusing assistance
There will be a high drop out rate – Wales nearly 10% of outcomes is where a duty was owed, were application withdrawal or contact lost.
Up to 50% or more of those helped are single people, many of whom would have previously just received the basic non priority advice duty
However, only 23% of the successful outcomes were through help to retain accommodation, meaning 77% were helped into alternative accommodation

14. Learning from Wales
Of those helped into alternative accommodation, social housing accounted for 34% of the outcomes
Full duty acceptances, compared to full duty acceptances under the old act are way down – nearly 70%
Temporary accommodation has fallen by over 20% and the use of B&B has also fallen