Early intervention tools to sustain tenancies
We have several tools and interventions available to prevent care leavers from becoming homeless, including:
- floating support services to assist young people to settle in and provide support with any tenancy-related needs
- setting up alternative payment arrangements (APAs) to enable Housing Benefit, or the housing cost component of Universal Credit, to be paid directly to the landlord where appropriate
- early notification from social workers of the potential risk to tenancy by housing officers, rental income support officers and PRS tenancy relations officer
- multiagency working to ensure that young people have the right support in place, such as Community MARAC
- support with applying for benefits, budgeting, re-payment plans for arrears, and financial assistance for those struggling with the cost-of-living (provided by the Welfare Benefits and H&F Link teams).
Joint working to deliver Homelessness Reduction Act duties
Wherever possible, care leavers will be supported through the children leaving care quota and will avoid using a homelessness or duty-to-refer approach. However, where a care leaver is eligible for assistance and is threatened with homelessness within 56 days or has become homeless, they are entitled to receive support from the local authority to either prevent or relieve their homelessness.
The young person’s social worker should, with the consent of the young person, make a referral to the Homelessness Prevention and Assessment team as early as possible through the duty to refer process. The young person can also make a homelessness presentation directly to the local authority.
If a direct presentation is made and the young person is under 25, the housing advisor should, with the consent of the young person, inform the Leaving Care duty service. The Homelessness Prevention and Assessment team will investigate the referral and reach out to the young person to:
- confirm eligibility
- arrange an assessment
- create a personal housing plan (PHP)
- and intervene to prevent them becoming homeless in the next 56 days.
If the young person is open to social services and consents, their social worker should be involved in this process and the PHP should be informed by the pathway plan. If the young person’s situation is not resolvable before they become homeless, they will likely be found to be in ‘priority need’ and therefore owed the main housing duty.
They will be placed in temporary accommodation and this could be self-contained temporary accommodation or supported accommodation. The use of bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) is not suitable accommodation for care leavers and should only be used in exceptional circumstances as a last resort.
The young person will remain in temporary accommodation until permanent housing is secured, usually through joining the housing register and signing up to a social housing tenancy. Care leavers will likely be placed in Band 3 under the local allocations scheme, unless they meet the community contribution criteria, in which case the young person will be placed in Band 2.
Discharge of main housing duty
If there is a risk of duties to the young person being limited due to their refusal of a suitable offer of accommodation or due to their deliberate and unreasonable refusal to co-operate with the steps taken to prevent or relieve homelessness, the Homelessness Prevention and Assessment team should ensure that the Leaving Care duty team is made aware of the risk of the main housing duty being discharged and temporary accommodation ended.
Alternative accommodation may be offered via the PRS, or the young person can request a review of their accommodation offer or PHP but there is no guarantee that this will lead to a different result.
If the care leaver has become ineligible for housing or homelessness assistance due to a change in their immigration status, the Leaving Care service will refer them to the national Asylum Support Service who will provide them with accommodation.
Intentional homelessness
As a guiding principle, no care leaver up to the age of 25 should be found ‘intentionally homeless’ as part of a homelessness assessment. However, the council remains obliged by homelessness legislation to consider individual facts and circumstances in every case and reserves the right to depart from this principle in appropriate cases.
If a homelessness assessment is likely to lead to an ‘intentional homelessness’ decision, the Leaving Care team should be consulted with and the decision signed off at the Housing Director’s Discretion Panel.
Rough sleeping
If a young person is found rough sleeping and identified as a care leaver under the age of 25, the rough sleeping coordinator should notify the Leaving Care duty service. The young person will likely be placed in supported accommodation.