Summary: Mrs B complains that the Council did not deal with her housing needs properly. The Council delayed accepting its relief duty, delayed creating a personal housing plan (PHP), and did not properly record how it was reviewed, incorrectly advised Mrs B of her review rights and did not give her enough notice of her temporary accommodation ending. Mrs B suffered delay in receiving her PHP, was uncertain about her review rights and suffered distress. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B, pay her £200 for the distress she suffered and review its policies, procedures and training.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs B, complains the Council has not dealt with her housing needs properly because:

• It did not deal with her homelessness application correctly.
• It did not properly complete a personal housing plan for her.
• It provided unsatisfactory temporary accommodation.
• It failed to communicate properly with her by only communicating by email.
• It has discriminated against her on the basis of her disability and race.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have spoken to Mrs B about her complaint and considered the information she has provided to the Ombudsman. I have also considered the Council’s response to her complaint and its response to my enquiries.
6. I have written to Mrs B and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments.

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What I found

7. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
8. Councils must complete an assessment if they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness. The Code of Guidance says, rather than advise the applicant to return when homelessness is more imminent, the housing authority may wish to accept a prevention duty and begin to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness. Councils must notify the applicant of the assessment. Councils should work with applicants to identify practical and reasonable steps for the council and the applicant to take to help the applicant keep or secure suitable accommodation. These steps should be tailored to the household, and follow from the findings of the assessment, and must be provided to the applicant in writing as their personalised housing plan. (Housing Act 1996, section 189A and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 11.6 and 11.18)
9. A council must secure interim accommodation for applicants and their household if it has reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)
10. The law says councils must ensure all accommodation provided to homeless applicants is suitable for the needs of the applicant and members of his or her household.  This duty applies to interim accommodation and accommodation provided under the main homelessness duty.  (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and (from 3 April 2018) Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
11. After completing inquiries, the council must give the applicant a decision in writing. If it is an adverse decision, the letter must fully explain the reasons.  All letters must include information about the right to request a review and the timescale for doing so. (Housing Act 1996, section 184, from 3 April 2018 Homelessness Code of Guidance 18.32 and 18.33)
12. Applicants may ask a council to provide accommodation pending the outcome of a review.  Councils have a power, but not a duty, to accommodate certain applicants and members of their household.  (Housing Act 1996, sections 188(3), 199A(6), 200(5))
13. Councils must complete reviews of the following decisions within eight weeks of the date of the review request regarding eligibility for assistance. The council must advise applicant of their right to appeal to the county court on a point of law, and of the period in which to appeal. Applicants can also appeal if the Council takes more than the prescribed time to complete the review. (Housing Act 1996, sections 202, 203 and 204)

What happened

14. Mrs B made a homelessness application to the Council. The Council made inquiries into her circumstances and decided to refer her to Council 2 because she had no local connection. The Council provided interim accommodation for Mrs B.
15. Mrs B was unhappy with the Council’s decision about her homelessness application and also about the suitability of the interim accommodation she was provided with. The Council told Mrs B she had rights of review about the initial decision to refer her to Council 2 and also when Council 2 accepted the referral. Mrs B asked the Council for a review of each decision.
16. Mrs B contacted different parts of the Council a large number of times, making a number of comments and complaints about different service areas including about her homelessness application and interim accommodation.

Analysis

Homelessness application

17. The Council assessed Mrs B when she made her homelessness application in May. The Council made inquiries about Mrs B’s circumstances and wrote to her saying it was making a s198 local connection referral to Council 2. However, the Council incorrectly advised Mrs B she had a right of review about the decision to make a referral. The Council took a long time to realise its mistake. It had multiple opportunities to identify the review error when it considered Mrs B’s complaints and failed to do so. This is fault by the Council. Mrs B was given wrong information which could have been corrected earlier.
18. Mrs B contacted the Council on many occasions, online, by telephone and by email. The Council did not respond to all Mrs B’s contacts because it wrongly considered the issues were already being addressed by the review it thought was taking place. The issues with Mrs B’s homeless application that she raised would not have made a difference to the way the Council dealt with her application, but Mrs B did suffer distress as a result of the Council’s mistake.
19. When Council 2 accepted the s198 referral, the Council wrote to Mrs B advising her of the outcome and correctly offered a right of review. This review is ongoing and should be completed by the end of November. Mrs B has a right of appeal if she is unhappy with the outcome.

Personal housing plan

20. The Council did not identify that Mrs B was entitled to a relief duty and a PHP when it assessed her in May. The Council accepts it became aware of this error in early July, advised Mrs B of its duty and created a PHP. Mrs B says the Council did not keep the PHP updated properly. The Council is unable to provide evidence that it did.
21. The Council did not comply with the law or the Code of Guidance. This is fault by the Council. Mrs B suffered a delay of six weeks in receiving a PHP and did not record reasons why it could not update it properly.

Interim accommodation

22. When the Council first assessed Mrs B it found she was eligible, homeless and possibly in priority need. At this point the Council had a duty to provide interim accommodation and it did.
23. When the Council made the s198 referral to Council 2, it had a duty to provide interim accommodation until a decision had been reached on whether the conditions for referral had been met. The Council did provide interim accommodation when Mrs B approached it later and asked it to.
24. When the Council told Mrs B that Council 2 had accepted the s198 referral, its duty to provide interim accommodation ended. At this point the Council had a discretionary power to provide accommodation. The Council continued to provide accommodation until Council 2’s offer of accommodation was in place. Mrs B asked the Council to continue to provide interim accommodation until the review currently in progress had been completed. The Council has written to Mrs B saying it will not do this, in accordance with the Code of Guidance.
25. The Council provided interim accommodation when it was required to do so. This is not fault by the Council.
26. Councils are required to provide an applicant with reasonable notice to vacate interim accommodation before it is terminated. The Council accept that it should have given Mrs B more notice before requiring her to leave accommodation in October. This is fault by the Council. Mrs B suffered distress when she was evicted from the accommodation.

Suitability of interim accommodation

27. In addition to the code of guidance, the Council’s transitional accommodation placement policy sets out its approach to providing transitional accommodation, including suitability of accommodation.
28. Mrs B left accommodation that had been provided to her because she says it was unsuitable. The Council says the accommodation was suitable and its duty to provide interim accommodation ended when Mrs B left the accommodation.
29. The accommodation provided by the Council did not match Mrs B’s expectations of what the Council should provide. On the balance of probabilities, the interim accommodation the Council offered was suitable because:
• complaints made by Mrs B about the unsuitability of interim accommodation centred around other residents. These were unable to be substantiated by CCTV and the police.
• it considered two separate risk assessments in May and July before offering Mrs B accommodation. These risk assessments show they were updated several times during their lifetime and took into account information Mrs B provided about her medical issues and domestic violence.
30. The Council complied with the Code of Guidance and its policy. This is not fault by the Council.

The Council’s communication

31. There was a large amount of communication and correspondence between Mrs B and the Council. The way Mrs B communicated with the Council, together with the high number of contacts made the situation more difficult for the Council to manage.
32. Mrs B asked the Council in September not to contact her by telephone or email. The Council agreed that all future contact would be by post but did not do this. The Council has now implemented a communications plan for Mrs B which will prevent similar problems in the future and agrees that it should have implemented it earlier.
33. The Council’s failure to manage its communication with Mrs B compounded the previous errors it made. This is fault by the Council. This contributed to the distress Mrs B suffered. Mrs B says her distress was compounded by her mental health disability. I have considered this when making my recommendations.

Discrimination

34. The Council took account of issues that Mrs B raised. It investigated complaints Mrs B made and sought police advice about them. The Council considered information that Mrs B provided about her disabilities and personal circumstances, including domestic violence. The Council took into account Mrs B’s requests and provided her with self-contained accommodation to help her feel less vulnerable. I have seen no evidence that the Council discriminated against Mrs B. This is not fault by the Council.

What the Council has done

35. The Council has updated its guidance about reviews for officers, reviewed its literature for customers and reviewed its letter templates to comply with the law.
36. The Council says it also intends to take actions to help prevent similar problems happening again. I consider this a positive acknowledgement of the difficulties faced as part of this complaint.

Agreed action

37. To remedy the additional injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
• apologise to Mrs B for the fault I have found.
• pay Mrs B £200 in recognition of the distress suffered as a result of the fault I have found.
• review all other outstanding homelessness decision reviews to ensure no other applicants have been offered incorrect rights of review.
• review its procedures regarding record-keeping and ensure staff are clearly aware of them.
• provide clearer guidance to staff on the process for completing s198 local connection referrals and ensuring that a relief duty is always offered in these types of cases.
• review its training programme for new officers and the support and monitoring they receive on case management.
• review its escalation process regarding “high contact” customers and provide clearer guidance to staff about when and how to implement a communications plan.

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Final decision

38. I have found the Council was at fault because it did not deal with Mrs B’s housing needs properly. Mrs B suffered distress as a result. I have now completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman