Homelessness post -Aweys

1. Homelessness post -Aweys Kuljit Bhogal Catherine Rowlands 15 October 2009

2. Aweys – the facts • Six families each with 6/7 children • Housed in 2/3 bedroom properties • Initial refusal to accept a homelessness application, advice to apply for a transfer, asked to complete a rehousing form or advised to use ‘Home Options’ scheme • Eventually accepted as homeless by Birmingham • All unintentionally homeless and in priority need

3. Aweys – Admin Court Originally a challenge to B’hams allocations policy. Street homeless applicants provided TA were in Band A The ‘homeless at home’ were placed in Band B Band A was the higher priority band Collins J: impossible to justify the division between bands A and B, concern that policy was driven by financial advantages that flow from making less use of TA, policy unlawful

4. Aweys - CoA CoA agreed with Collins J: From the moment they were accepted as homeless the law treated them as being without accommodation. The s.193(2) duty was to secure that accommodation was available for occupation by them. The homeless at home ought to have been in TA just as the street homeless has been placed in TA

5. Moran – the facts Fled DV, living in a women’s refuge Evicted from refuge Manchester decided she had become homeless intentionally M appealed the decision that it could be reasonable to continue to occupy the refuge

6. Reasonable to continue to occupy (1) 175 Homelessness and threatened homelessness (1)     A person is homeless if he has no accommodation available for his occupation, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, which he— (a)     is entitled to occupy by virtue of an interest in it or by virtue of an order of a court, (b)     has an express or implied licence to occupy, or (c)     occupies as a residence by virtue of any enactment or rule of law giving him the right to remain in occupation or restricting the right of another person to recover possession. (2)     A person is also homeless if he has accommodation but— (a)     he cannot secure entry to it, or (b)     it consists of a moveable structure, vehicle or vessel designed or adapted for human habitation and there is no place where he is entitled or permitted both to place it and to reside in it. (3)     A person shall not be treated as having accommodation unless it is accommodation which it would be reasonable for him to continue to occupy.

7. Reasonable to continue to occupy (2) 191 Becoming homeless intentionally (1)     A person becomes homeless intentionally if he deliberately does or fails to do anything in consequence of which he ceases to occupy accommodation which is available for his occupation and which it would have been reasonable for him to continue to occupy. …

8. House of Lords Both sections looks to the future as well as the present by the use of the words ‘continue to’ occupy. This allows B’ham to accept a family as homeless even though they can actually get by where they are for a while longer. Council can then start to look for suitable acc. Otherwise family’s application would have to be rejected until they could not stay there any longer, removes need for repeated applications. However, B’ham cannot leave families indefinitely, will come a point where not reasonable to occupy for another night and LA will have to act.

9. In Manchester, this interpretation allows the woman fleeing DV to remain homeless even though she is housed in the refuge R v Ealing LBC v Sidhu (1981-82) 2 HLR 45 QBD (which held that accommodation in a refuge is not ‘accommodation’) wrongly decided LA can decide it is not reasonable to continue to occupy acc even if it reasonable to occupy for a little while longer

10. General Principles The concepts of whether it is ‘reasonable to occupy’ accommodation (section 175(3)) and ‘suitability’ both depend on the time the person is expected to occupy that accommodation, judged at the time the decision falls to be made: 41, 42, 47. A local authority may therefore find a person homeless from accommodation which is available to her on the basis that it would not be reasonable as of that date for her to continue to occupy it for the foreseeable future and, but for the intervention of the local authority, she would remain there for the foreseeable future. That is so even if she could return to the accommodation she currently occupies that night.

11. 3. Once the local authority reaches the conclusion that it would not be reasonable for the applicant to live in the accommodation she currently occupies for the foreseeable future, they owe a duty to the applicant (depending on whether she is in priority need and intentionally homeless). 4. The local housing authority is unlikely to be able to find permanent suitable accommodation immediately and it is more likely that they will provide short-term accommodation. Short-term accommodation may be provided in one of four ways:

12. a.The local authority may defer taking a decision as to homelessness for a short period of time. During this period, the applicant may be housed in short-term accommodation pursuant to section 188 (accommodation pending inquiries/decision). b. Short-term accommodation pending review of that initial decision under section 202. c. Short-term accommodation pending an appeal against the review of the initial decision under section 204. d. Performance (“discharge”) of the housing duty under section 193. 5. None of that accommodation need be suitable for the applicant to reside in on a long-term or permanent basis because suitability varies with the time for which the applicant is likely to reside there. See R v LB Brent ex parte Awua[1996] 1 AC 55.