Summary: Miss X complains about how the Council dealt with her homelessness application. The Council was at fault as it failed to offer interim accommodation when Miss X first made her homelessness application, placed her in unsuitable interim accommodation, delayed in accepting the main housing duty and failed to properly investigate her complaint. These faults caused harm and distress to Miss X which the Council has agreed to remedy by apologising and making a symbolic payment of £2000 to her.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that the Council:

• Failed to offer interim accommodation when she first made her homelessness application despite notifying it that she had fled a relative’s property due to domestic abuse.
• Delayed in dealing with her homelessness application including delays in accepting the main housing duty.
• Placed her in unsuitable interim accommodation. Miss X says the interim accommodation was unsuitable as she could not share with male residents and the accommodation was not affordable for her.

2. Miss X considers the Council’s actions placed her at risk of harm as she had to return to her relative’s property and she was assaulted by the male resident in the interim accommodation. The Council’s actions also caused significant distress to her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
5. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have:

• Considered the complaint and the information provided by Miss X;
• Discussed the issues with Miss X;
• Made enquiries of the Council and considered the information provided;
• Invited Miss X and the Council to comment on the draft decision. I considered the comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

8. Councils must complete an assessment if they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with 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 (PHP). (Housing Act 1996, section 189A and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 11.6 and 11.18)
9. Councils must take reasonable steps to help to secure suitable accommodation for any eligible homeless person. When a council decides this duty has come to an end, it must notify the applicant in writing (Housing Act 1996, section 189B)
10. There are two types of accommodation councils provide to certain homeless applicants: interim accommodation and temporary accommodation.
11. A council must secure accommodation for applicants and their household if it has reason to believe they may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. This is called interim accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 188)
12. If a council is satisfied an applicant is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance, and has a priority need the council has a duty to secure that accommodation is available for their occupation. This is called the main housing duty. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
13. If a council ends its interim accommodation duty, but then goes on to accept the main housing duty, it still has a duty to provide temporary accommodation.
14. The law says councils must ensure all accommodation provided to homeless applicants is suitable for the needs of the applicant and members of their household.  This duty applies to interim and temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)

What happened

15. The following is a summary of the facts relevant to my consideration of the complaint. It does not include everything that happened.
16. Miss X contacted the Council to make a homelessness application in summer 2023. The Council’s duty records note Miss X said she left her last property and stayed with a relative due to ill health. She then fled from that property as her relative threatened her so she was sofa surfing. The Council’s records note Miss X may be in priority need due to domestic abuse.
17. The Council requested further information from Miss X regarding her tenancy history, made enquiries of her former landlord and carried out a homelessness assessment. The Council accepted the relief duty but it did not offer interim accommodation to Miss X as it did not consider she was in priority need. The Council’s records show it made this decision as it considered Miss X had become homeless as the result of her tenancy ending rather than fleeing domestic abuse.
18. The Council drew up a PHP for Miss X setting out the steps to relieve her homelessness. The Council noted on the PHP that Miss X said she could not share accommodation with male residents as she had previously suffered domestic abuse.
19. Miss X moved back to her relative’s property to avoid becoming street homeless. She fled the property again due to threats from her relative. A council in another area offered interim accommodation to Miss X when she fled from her relative’s property. I understand the council withdrew this accommodation when Miss X returned to the Council’s area.
20. A few weeks later the Council reviewed its decision that Miss X was not in priority need. It decided she was in priority need due to her vulnerability.
21. The Council offered interim accommodation to Miss X which was mixed sex shared accommodation. Shortly after moving into the property, Miss X contacted the Council to say she could not afford to pay the rent as she was not eligible for housing benefit. The Council’s records note officers told Miss X to pay as much as she could.
22. In February 2024, the Council accepted the main housing duty and notified her of the right to seek a review of the suitability of her accommodation. Two weeks later, Miss X reported to the Council that she had been physically assaulted by a male resident at her accommodation. The Council moved the resident from the property. Miss X told the Council that she did not feel safe in the property.
23. Miss X moved to permanent accommodation in summer 2024.

Complaint

24. Miss X made a complaint to the Council in summer 2023 about how it was dealing with her homelessness application. She considered the Council had not followed the law when dealing with her homelessness application as it failed to offer interim accommodation. The Council did not uphold Miss X’s complaint at stage one of its complaints procedure. This is because it considered the officer dealing with Miss X’s application had followed the correct policies and procedures. The Council referred to incorrect legislation when responding to Miss X’s complaint.
25. Miss X escalated her complaint to stage two. The Council upheld her complaint as it acknowledged the officer had not taken into account the domestic abuse suffered by Miss X. The Council apologised for not following the correct procedures. It said it would provide extra training to the officer who dealt with Miss X’s case.
26. In response to my enquiries the Council said:

• It did not adequately consider the risk information when providing shared mixed sex accommodation to Miss X.
• It did not adequately consider the affordability of the interim accommodation. But it paid £3500 from the household support fund to Miss X to cover her rent arrears.
• It did not carry out an assessment of the suitability of the interim accommodation before placing Miss X. It has since introduced a new affordability and suitability assessment process to improve the provision of interim and temporary accommodation. It has also commissioned specialist training on suitability.
• It has provided domestic abuse training to homelessness prevention and assessment officers and all staff must complete mandatory domestic abuse training.
• It did not reassess the suitability of Miss X’s temporary accommodation following the assault as it had removed the risk to her by moving the other resident.
• It delayed in accepting the main housing duty for Miss X due to periods of staff absence and it could not reallocate her case due to limited resources.
• The Council is currently taking an average of 287 days from an applicant’s first approach to accepting the main housing duty which it accepts is too long and not in line with the Homelessness Code of Guidance. The Council receives an average of 280 homelessness applications each month and the delays are due to the demand on its service.
• The Council has an action plan in place and has brought in additional resources to reduce the number of older cases and bring its case completion times within target times.
• The Council will offer an apology and payment of £750 to Miss X to acknowledge the distress caused to her.

27. Miss X considers the Council’s failure to offer interim accommodation caused her to return to her relative’s property to avoid being street homeless. This caused her to be physically threatened by her relative. She also considers the Council’s failure to provide suitable interim accommodation led to her being assaulted.

Analysis

Interim accommodation

28. The Council has acknowledged it did not give adequate consideration to the fact Miss X was fleeing domestic abuse when she first presented as homeless and when assessing her homelessness application. This is fault. I consider, on balance, that the Council would have offered interim accommodation to Miss X when she first made her homelessness application if it had properly considered the facts of her case. The threshold for accepting the interim accommodation duty is low. So, the fact Miss X said she was fleeing domestic abuse is likely to have been sufficient reason for the Council to believe she may be homeless and in priority need. The Council’s failure to offer interim accommodation put Miss X in harm’s way as she had to return to her relative’s address where she was threatened.
29. The Council did not assess the suitability of the interim accommodation before offering it to Miss X. It failed to consider Miss X could not share with male residents or whether she could afford the accommodation. As a result, the Council placed Miss X in unsuitable accommodation where she suffered harm. Miss X was also caused distress as the property was not affordable. But the Council mitigated this injustice by making payments to her from the household support fund.
30. The Council also missed several opportunities to assess the suitability of the accommodation. It should have assessed the suitability when Miss X raised concerns about affordability. It should also have assessed whether the accommodation was suitable as temporary accommodation for Miss X when it accepted the main housing duty. I note Miss X did not seek a review of the suitability of the temporary accommodation when the Council accepted the main housing duty. Nevertheless, the Council should still have assessed the suitability when Miss X said she felt unsafe following the assault. On balance, I consider the Council would have moved Miss X to suitable accommodation if it had reviewed the suitability.

Main housing duty

31. It is likely that the relief duty would have ended for Miss X after 56 days so the Council should have considered if it accepted the main housing duty at this time. The Homelessness Code of Guidance provides that councils should be able to notify applicants whether it accepts the main housing duty on or around 57 days after accepting the relief duty. So, the Council should have accepted the main housing duty around early September 2023. It did not accept the duty until February 2024 which was a delay of five months. The Council has said the delay was caused by the demand on its service which is an external factor. This is service failure and is fault. This caused distress and uncertainty to Miss X as she did not know if the Council would accept the main housing duty for a prolonged period of time.

Complaint

32. The Council’s consideration of Miss X’s complaint at stage one of its complaint procedure was inadequate. The Council quoted incorrect legislation. It failed to identify that Miss X was fleeing domestic abuse and it should have offered interim accommodation to her. This is fault. The Council offered interim accommodation to Miss X before it issued the stage one response. But Miss X may not have escalated her complaint to stage two if the Council had properly investigated her complaint. On balance, I consider Miss X was put to avoidable time and trouble as a result of this fault.

Remedy

33. The Council has offered a payment of £750 to acknowledge the injustice caused by the faults in how it dealt with Miss X’s homelessness application. I do not consider this is sufficient to acknowledge the injustice caused to Miss X by the failure to offer interim accommodation and being placed in unsuitable interim and temporary accommodation. The Council should therefore make a symbolic payment of £1500 to Miss X to acknowledge the harm and distress caused to her. I consider this is a proportionate remedy to acknowledge Miss X suffered harm as a consequence of the faults by the Council.
34. The Council should also make a symbolic payment of £300 to acknowledge the distress caused to Miss X by delay in accepting the main housing duty and a symbolic payment of £200 to acknowledge the avoidable time and trouble caused to her by the inadequate consideration of her complaint.
35. The Council has said it has an action plan to reduce the older cases and bring its case completion times within the required timescales. I welcome the action it is taking to reduce the delays. But the Council should provide a quarterly report to the relevant committee or cabinet member to ensure progress is maintained and to ensure democratic oversight.
36. The Council has provided evidence of its domestic abuse training for officers so it is not necessary to recommend any service improvements in this area.

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Agreed action

37. That the Council will:
1. Send a written apology to Miss X for the harm caused to her by the Council’s failure to offer interim accommodation when she first made her homelessness application, by placing her in unsuitable accommodation and for the distress, uncertainty and avoidable time and trouble caused by the Council’s delay in accepting the main housing duty and in failing to properly consider her complaint. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
2. Make a symbolic payment of £1500 to Miss X to acknowledge the harm caused to her.
3. Make a symbolic payment of £300 to Miss X to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty caused to her by the delay in accepting the main housing duty.
4. Make a symbolic payment of £200 to Miss X to acknowledge the avoidable time and trouble caused to her by the Council’s inadequate consideration of her complaint.
5. Provide a quarterly report to the relevant committee or cabinet member on the Council’s progress in reducing the delays in considering the main housing duty and brining its case completion times within the required timescales. This is to ensure the Council maintains progress and to ensure democratic oversight.
6. Provide evidence of the Council’s new process to assess the suitability of interim and temporary accommodation.
38. The Council should take the action at a) to d) within one month and the action at e) and f) within two months of the final decision. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

39. I have completed my investigation and uphold Miss X’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Miss X. The Council has agreed to remedy Miss X’s injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman