Homelessness - a guide to the law

This is a guide to what you are entitled to under the law and how we can help you.

The 1996 Housing Act, Part VII (as amended by the 2002 Homelessness Act) sets out the legal duties that all local authorities have towards people who are homeless.

We have a legal duty towards you if having investigated your application we establish that you:

• Are eligible
• Are homeless or threatened with homelessness
• Have a priority need
• Are not intentionally homeless

If you do not have a local connection with Newham the duty to assist you can be passed to the borough where you do have a local connection.

Eligible
Certain categories of person are not 'eligible' for assistance under the homelessness legislation, because they do not usually live in the UK or are subject to some form of immigration control. You are likely to be eligible for assistance if:

• You usually live in the UK and are not subject to any form of immigration control
• You usually live in the UK and are subject to immigration control, but your right to stay here is not subject to any time limit or condition/s
• You have been given refugee status, or exceptional leave to remain here, as a result of an application for asylum
• You are an asylum seeker who applied at port of entry, when you first came to the UK and have not yet received a decision on your asylum application
• You are an asylum seeker, who applied for asylum prior to 5th February 1996

Households who are not eligible for assistance from us may be eligible for assistance from Social Services. You should seek advice on this from the Local Service Centre.

Homeless
We will consider you to be homeless if:

• You have nowhere to live
• You have been living somewhere, but you have no legal right to stay there.
• You have somewhere to live, but cannot get into it
• You have somewhere to live, but someone else who lives there has been violent towards you, or is likely to be violent towards you
• Your home is a caravan, or a houseboat and you have nowhere to legally park it, or moor it
• You have somewhere to live, but the people who normally live with you cannot stay with you at your accommodation
• You have lost your accommodation as a result of an emergency, such as fire, flood or some other disaster
• You have somewhere to live but it is unreasonable for you to remain there due to the condition of the property.

We will consider you to be threatened with homelessness if you are likely to become homeless within the next 28 days.

This may be because:

• You have been taken to court by your landlord and the court has said you must leave
• You have been living with friends or relatives who have told you to leave

If you are threatened with homelessness we will take all reasonable steps to try to ensure that you do not lose your accommodation.


In priority need
You have a priority need for accommodation if:

• You are 16 or 17 years old
• You are 18 to 20 years old and were looked after, accommodated or fostered between the ages of 16 and 18
• You have dependent children who are under 16, or under 19 if they are in full time education, who live with you
• You, or any member of your household is pregnant
• You have been made homeless as a result of fire, flood or some other disaster

You will also have a priority need if you are vulnerable due to :

• Being elderly (over 60 years of age)
• Suffering from mental illness, disability, or physical illness
• Being at risk of domestic or other violence
• Being over 21 and having previously been in the care of Social Services or fostered
• Having served a custodial sentence or served in the armed forces.

When assessing whether you have a priority need due to being vulnerable we will apply a particular legal test which the Courts have developed.


Intentionally homeless
When assessing your application we will consider whether you became homeless or threatened with homelessness intentionally. We will examine whether you or a member of your household did or fail to do something which directly led to you losing your last settled accommodation which was available to you and reasonable for you to continue to occupy.

We will also examine whether you entered into an arrangement with your host or landlord which resulted in you losing your home, the purpose of the arrangement being to enable you to obtain our assistance as a homeless person.


What is a local connection?
You will have a local connection with a borough if:

• You have lived in that borough for six out of the last 12 months
• You have lived in that borough for three out of the last five years.

You will not be considered as having a local connection with this borough if you have been provided with temporary accommodation by another council within Newham and have lived in it for less than five years.

• you have employment in the borough which is not of a casual nature
• You have a close relative who has lived in the borough for the last five years (e.g. mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter)

We may refer you to another council and ask them to assist you if:

• You have no local connection with Newham, but do have a local connection with the other council. We will not refer you to another council if the referral will place you at risk of violence.

What assistance can you give me if my application is denied?
If we decide that we do not owe a duty to provide you with interim or temporary accommodation (because you are not eligible, not homeless, not in priority need or because you made yourself intentionally homeless), we will give you advice and assistance on how you may find a place to live.

If you receive a negative decision on your application, you will be informed of how you can request a review of our decision.