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Housing Options and Homelessness
This page explains what is meant by Housing Options,
outlines the advice offered by the Council to people who are
homeless or who are likely to become homeless, and what the
Housing Service Team can do to help. This page should
help you to understand how the Council can help you resolve the
problems that you face.
Who can be helped by Housing Options?
The Council has duties under various Housing Acts to help
people who are homeless. As soon as you are faced with
homelessness or even if you think that you might become homeless in
the future you should contact the Housing Service Team for
advice. Once the service is aware of your problem you will be
offered advice on how to prevent the homelessness and help you stay
in your home.
If this advice is not successful, and you do become homeless
the service would look to help you find somewhere
to stay in the short term.
This will usually happen whilst an assessment
of your housing needs is made. The assessment will look at all your
housing needs and may help you find accommodation.
It is important to remember that the Council only has limited
resources which it can use to meet your accommodation needs.
Havant is an area of very high demand for social housing. Each year
there are more applications for social housing than can be helped
with the result that most people will have to wait several years
before they can be considered for a permanent offer of social
housing.
If you are able to contact the service as soon as you become
aware that you will be needing help it will increase the chances of
either preventing the homelessness or of finding somewhere else to
stay.
How to contact the Housing Service Team
Housing Service
Ground Floor
Civic Offices
Civic Centre Road
Havant
Hants PO9 2AX
Telephone (023) 9244 6564 or (023) 9244
6637
Email : housingservice@havant.gov.uk
Opening hours 9.00 – 17.00 Monday – Friday
It is not always necessary to book an
appointment for an interview with a Housing Advisory
Officer, although at busy times, you may have a short wait. Where
people are unable to get into Havant home visits can be
arranged.
What is a Housing Options interview?
A housing options interview will examine the particular
housing needs that you and your household may have and will help
identify what can be done to meet those needs. As part of the
Housing Options interview you will be offered help to
stay in your current accommodation or offered advice to find
suitable accommodation.
The advice which is most commonly requested is
:-
- being asked to leave home by parents or
relatives
- landlords ending tenancies
- the breakdown of
relationships
- escaping domestic violence
- benefits entitlement and housing benefit
- mortgage arrears, shared ownership and key worker schemes.
The housing needs assessment will aim to prevent homelessness
and to offer advice at an early stage so that homelessness does not
take place.
The advice which is often offered is :
- negotiating a settlement with a parent or relative to allow you
to stay living at home whilst you are looking for somewhere
else.
- negotiating with you landlord to extend you tenancy.
- arranging for floating support to be provide to help you
maintain your tenancy.
- helping sort out housing benefit.
- helping you find alternative accommodation.
- helping you make an application to the Havant Housing
Register.
Young people aged 16 or 17 will be offered a joint assessment
by Social Services and the Council’s Young Persons Housing Advisory
Officer.
At the interview as part of the assessment you will be
required to follow up some tasks your self. On some occasions the
problem is resolved immediately but mostly it will take time before
your problem is resolved and the advice which has been offered
becomes effective. During this time you will be able to seek
further help from your Housing Advisory Officer or any other member
of staff within the Housing Service Team. Please
remember that this is a very busy service and that it is not always
possible to answer your enquiry immediately. If your Housing
Advisory Officer is not available simply leave a message and they
will get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens if I do become homeless?
If the approach undertaken in the Housing Options interview is
not successful and you do lose your accommodation the Council will
still continue working with you to help you find
accommodation.
If you are making a homelessness application you will be asked
to provide proof of you and the members of your household’s
identity and provide documents such Court Orders, notices to quit
and letters from your landlord and solicitor. It will be your
requirement to ensure that the information you provide to the
Council is accurate. Giving false information is a criminal
offence.
Who is considered to be homeless?
You are considered to be homeless if :
- you have nowhere to live in the United Kingdom or anywhere else
in the world.
- you cannot live in your home because of threats of violence or
actual violence.
- you cannot live together with all of your family.
- you do not have to owners permission to stay e.g. you are a
squatter.
- you have been illegally locked out of your home and cannot get
back in.
- your home is a boat, mobile home or caravan and you have no
lawful site or mooring.
- you have somewhere to live but it is not reasonable for you to
remain there . This may be because of a threat of violence or
harassment from someone living in or near your home or because of
overcrowding or bad housing conditions. To decide if it is
reasonable to remain the Council may compare your housing situation
with the housing conditions of other people living in the
borough.
Homelessness is usually considered if you are likely to loose
your accommodation within 28 days. If you are leaving hospital or
prison, or are a care leaver there special arrangements which have
been agreed by the Council to assess your needs and you should
contact your social worker or probation officer for advice.
Who is eligible for assistance?
You are probably not eligible for assistance if :
- you are an asylum seeker or have been refused asylum.
- you have limited leave to remain in the United Kingdom but
cannot claim public funds or you are an over stayer.
- you are not habitually resident in the United Kingdom or have
no right of residence.
The law in this area is very complicated so you should get
specialist legal advice if you think that any of these
circumstances apply to you or think that you may not be eligible
for assistance. If you are living abroad you are strongly advised
to seek advice before you return to the United Kingdom.
Who is in priority need
You are in priority need if :
- you are responsible for dependent children ( usually those
under 16, or under 19 if they are in full time education. )
- you are
pregnant
- you are homeless as a result of fire flood or other
disaster
- you are aged 16 or
17
- you are a former care leaver
- you are vulnerable as a result of old age, disability, learning
difficulty, mental health or some other special reason such as a
result of violence, having served a custodial sentence, having been
a member of the armed forces.
Who is intentionally homeless?
Some people will not be helped if they are considered to be
intentionally homeless.
This will be if :
- you decide to leave a home which you could have continued to
occupy
- you deliberately lost you home
- you did not take up an offer of accommodation
- you deliberately arranged to become homeless.
If the decision is that you are intentionally homeless the
Housing Needs Team may still help you find somewhere to stay so
that you are given the opportunity to settle down and try to secure
settled accommodation.
What is a local connection?
If you are homeless, eligible, in priority need and not
intentionally homeless the Council is also required to check
whether you have a local connection with the area. If you do not
have a local connection you might be referred to an area where you
do have a connection. You have a local connection if you :
- live or have lived in the Havant borough area for six months in
the last year or three out of the last 5 years.
- have employment in Havant borough.
- have a close relative ( parent, brother, sister or adult
children ) you wish to live near or who have lived in Havant in
last 5 years.
- have some other reason which creates a connection with the
area.
Time spent in the armed forces, college, prison or hospital will
not usually count as a local connection. However, if you have left
an area because of domestic violence the rules are slightly
different. In these circumstances if you have no local connection
with Havant you would not be referred back to any area where you
would be at risk of further violence.
The homelessness duty
The Council will assess all applications and give a written
decision in each case explaining what duty is owed and how this
will be met. Where the Council does not accept a duty advice will
be offered to help resolve the situation. Where the applicant
is homeless, eligible, in priority need, not intentionally homeless
and has a local connection a full homelessness duty is
accepted by the Council
The homelessness duty means that accommodation will be
arranged until suitable settled accommodation can be
secured. The accommodation will be provided by either a
private rented sector landlord or a housing association. It will
always be an assured shorthold tenancy. The definition of "suitable
settled accommodation” is either a housing association assured
tenancy or in some circumstances supported housing. Due to
the serious shortage of social housing securing the settled
accommodation may take several years.
When a homelessness duty is accepted an application will also
be made to the Havant Housing Register and an award made of
“reasonable preference.” All applications to the Housing Register
are assessed in accordance with the Council’s Allocation Policy.
Assessments are based on a combination of housing need points and
waiting time and only when an application reaches the top of the
Register it be considered for an offer. Once an offer has been made
from the Housing Register of “suitable settled accommodation” the
Council’s homelessness duty is considered to have been
discharged.
What to do if you disagree with a homelessness decision
If the Council has made a decision which you believe to be
incorrect you have a right to ask for a Review. Before asking for a
Review it is always best in the first instance to contact the
Housing Advisory Officer if you wish to challenge a decision. If
this approach is unsuccessful you could arrange an interview with
the Housing Service Manager. The final stage is to
request a formal Review of the decision. This must be made in
writing within 21 days of the homelessness decision have been
made.
The Review will be completed by an officer who has not been
involved in the case. Within 8 weeks you will receive a formal
response from the Council. If you disagree with the Council’s
Review you might be able to appeal to the County Court. This can
only be made on a point of law so that it would be best to seek
expert legal advice if you wish to proceed with the court
action.