Emergency Social Housing Allocations Policy
In this section
- Appendix Two – Section 55 of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016
- Appendix Three – Local Connection and Community Connection definition and areas
- Appendix Four – Location, type, and size of property
- Appendix Five – ‘Criteria for Letting’
- Appendix Six – Identified Support Needs
- Appendix Seven – Reasonable Offer and Suitable Offer Flowchart
Application and Assessment Process
3.1 An application to join the Housing Register is subject to a housing assessment being completed. Whilst the Council will consider all enquiries for help with housing, not all applicants are eligible under this Policy to join the Housing Register (See Section 2). The application and assessment for social housing under this Emergency Allocation Policy is as follows:
Information, advice, and emergency assistance
3.2 A team of dedicated Housing Hwb Advisors will discuss individual housing needs and circumstances and give appropriate information, advice, and emergency assistance.
The initial-assessment interview will allow us to fully:
- identify the urgency of the need for housing.
- assess whether an applicant will qualify to join the Housing Register
- consider housing options to formulate individual housing plans.
- consider if an applicant has the financial resources available to meet their housing costs.
- identify if the applicant has any reasonable prospect of being housed through registration.
- identify any support required (refer where necessary).
3.3 The team can be contacted by telephone on 01554 899389 or by email via schoptions@carmarthenshire.gov.uk. Following the initial assessment, if we think the applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness applicants should be referred to a Housing Options Advisor. To speak to someone out of hours as an emergency phone 0300 3332222 or email contactus@deltawellbeing.org.uk.
3.4 The Council uses an online application process, with support being made available for our most vulnerable residents and those who are unable to complete this on their own and do not have support to do so.
3.5 A full assessment will only take place following an initial assessment interview and once we have received all the supporting documents and evidential information to support the application. We will assist our vulnerable residents to do this.
3.6 Following the assessment, we will notify applicants of the outcome of the assessment, if they are eligible or not to join the register, and if they have been placed in a Band or have no preference. The Band will be the one that most reflects their housing need. They will have the right to request a review of this decision if they do not agree with the outcome of the assessment.
3.7 A joint application will be treated as one application. The housing needs of all members of the household will be considered in assessing an application. However, we do not accept multiple applications from an applicant, meaning that no individual can have their name on more than one housing application at any one time. All applicants will be provided with a full range of realistic options to resolve their housing need, and which are tailored to their individual circumstances.
3.8 It is the responsibility of every applicant to ensure that their application details are correct at the time of registration and are subsequently updated when any circumstances change. Failure to do this may either lead to the application being cancelled, the applicant being placed in the wrong Band, or a subsequent offer of accommodation being withdrawn because application details were incorrect.
- Further, section 171 of the Housing Act 1996 provides that it is a criminal offence for a Housing Register applicant (or someone on their behalf) to knowingly or recklessly make a material statement or withhold information which the Council have reasonably required.
3.9 Applicants will be required to re-register their housing application twice a year to confirm that they still want to be considered for housing. On the 6 and 12-month anniversary of the date of their registration, applicants will be reminded that they are required to renew their application. Applicants will be notified in writing of the arrangements for completing this renewal.
3.10 Failure to complete the renewal or failure to re-register, log-on and access their accounts, or bid for properties that meet their needs, will mean that applicants will be removed from the Housing Register within the time-period specified. Applicants have the right to appeal removal from the Housing Register by providing the necessary evidence.
Housing Options Assessment
3.11 As part of the housing options assessment, we will determine whether an applicant will qualify to join the Housing Register. We must ensure applicants are eligible to join The Register and rigorous checks are undertaken to ensure only those legally eligible for social housing are registered. We need information which will include formal photo identification (e.g., passport, driving licence) and a National Insurance Number. This will help us to make initial checks prior to registration. We will also collect information to help us ensure allocations are made fairly and in line with the Equality Act 2010.
3.12 There are some groups of people who by law cannot join the register regardless of their housing need or circumstances. (See Section 2 and Appendix One). These are people who:
- Come under various immigration rules and cannot claim housing help.
- Live outside the Common Travel Area (UK, Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or the Republic of Ireland) for tax purposes.
- Do not have the right to live in the UK.
- The Secretary of State has decided are not eligible for housing.
3.13 Under section 160A (7) & (8) of the 1996 Housing Act we may not register people who have been guilty of unacceptable behaviour. This is where we are satisfied that an applicant (or a member of an applicant’s household) is guilty of unacceptable behaviour serious enough to make them unsuitable to be a tenant.
- Unacceptable behaviour means behaviour which would (if they were a contract-holder) breach section 55 of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (anti-social behaviour and other prohibited conduct). See 2.4 and 2.5 above for further details.
3.14 Anyone who is 16 or 17 years of age will ordinarily be referred to our Social Services team or other organisations who work with young and vulnerable people. A Children's Act 1989 assessment may be carried out. If the child is deemed a child in need, they will be provided with accommodation under S20 of the Children's Act 1989. Where they are not deemed a child in need then they will be referred to the most appropriate supported or temporary accommodation provision available to accommodate them.
Emergency Banding Criteria
3.15 Applicants will be placed in a Band depending on their housing need identified through the housing assessment and according to the criteria st out in the Bands.
3.16 Under this Policy people who have been assessed under Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and a section 75 duty has been accepted; and those assessed under Appendix 3 of the Code of Practice with additional preference will be considered eligible to join the emergency Band A to ensure that they are given adequate priority for housing.
3.17 Under this Policy the Council will maintain a Register of those applicants who are eligible and fall within:
Band A - Emergency Eligibility
Band B – Housing Need
Band C - those who are “registered only”
And those who have no preference according to this Policy (see section 2.8).
3.18 People being assessed as having no housing need will not normally have any preference on the Housing Register under The Policy. Except for those applicants
- who wish to be considered for sheltered accommodation and accommodation for older people (for over 55s); requiring extra care housing (Housing with care and support; have been assessed as requiring an adapted home; or wish to register for Low-Cost Home Ownership (LCHO)). They may be offered properties or be able to bid for properties which have not been taken up by applicants from Bands A and B.
3.19 For existing (at the time this policy is introduced) applicants in Band A, in urgent housing need, their Banding will be retained, subject to 3.8 - 3.10 above.
3.20 Homes will be matched to people in the greatest need first. Only if a property cannot be matched to an applicant in Exceptional Circumstances or in Band A will it be advertised on Canfod Cartref - Home Finder.
3.21 Social Housing is only allocated to people who have been accepted onto our Housing Register. Once eligibility to join The Housing Register has been confirmed, applicants will be placed in a Band or the “no preference” group as follows:
1.Homelessness: Additional Preference
- Applicants who have been assessed under Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and a section 75 duty has been accepted.
2.Homelessness: Reasonable Preference
- Applicants who are homeless, and housing will relieve their homelessness (Section 73 Housing (Wales) Act 2014).
- Applicants who have a substantiated threat of homelessness and housing will prevent their homelessness (Section 66 Housing (Wales) Act 2014).
- Applicants who would be owed a homelessness duty as they need to move on from supported housing.
3. Urgent Housing Need: Additional Preference
- Applicants who we owe a homelessness duty as a result of violence or threats of violence likely to be carried out and who as a result require urgent rehousing, including:
- victims of domestic or other abuse
- victims of hate incidents.
- witnesses of crime, or victims of crime, who would be at risk of intimidation amounting to violence or threats of violence if they remained in their current homes.
- Applicants who need to move due to high risk or life-threatening medical/welfare grounds which will not improve until more suitable accommodation is offered. This will require an assessment by an appropriate professional.
- Applicants who need to move to suitable accommodation because of a serious injury, medical condition, or disability which he or she, or a member of their household, has sustained because of service in the Armed Forces.
- Applicants who are currently occupying a property where there is a statutory requirement to vacate due to a prohibition order/demolition order/compulsory purchase order.
- Applicants who are currently under-occupying social housing in Carmarthenshire and needs to transfer to a smaller property due to the current property being unaffordable and remaining would result in hardship.
The Housing Act 1996 Section 167 gives full detail of situations where applicants should be given additional preference and/or assessed under Part 2 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and we will assess applicants in accordance with this legislation fully.
*The law tells us we must prioritise the groups in Bold text.
- Applicants who need to move, as their medical/welfare condition will not improve. The assessment is not based on the medical condition alone but how their current accommodation affects their health. This includes applicants living in a mobile home, caravan or converted vehicle.
- Applicants who need to move to provide or receive support and care as they cannot carry out day to day activities alone i.e., washing, cleaning, and getting in and out of bed.
- Applicants who are currently under-occupying social housing in Carmarthenshire and want to transfer to a smaller property.
- Applicants who want to move from an adapted home that they no longer require. This would then benefit another household who requires this specialist type of property.
- Applicants occupying insanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory conditions.
- Applicants who need to move to a particular locality in Carmarthenshire County Council, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship to themselves or others.
- Applicants who have no housing need based on the information they submitted on their application.
- Have the financial resources available to meet their housing costs.
- Have been guilty, or a member of their household has been guilty, of unacceptable behaviour serious enough to make them unsuitable to be a tenant of the Council AND in the circumstances at the time their case is considered, they deserve, by reason of that behaviour, not to be treated as a member of a group of people who are to be given preference.
- Do not have a local connection to Carmarthenshire, as defined at section 81 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, unless they are exempt from the local connection criteria as set out in Appendix Three.
