Chelmsford City Council (22 001 492)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 09-Aug-2022

Summary: Miss X complained about how the Council dealt with her homelessness application. There was no fault in how the Council offered, and ended its duty to arrange, interim accommodation, gave Miss X advice about its housing allocation scheme or communicated with her. There was fault in how the Council first decided Miss X was not homeless. The resulting delay caused Miss X avoidable distress and uncertainty for which the Council agreed to apologise and pay a financial remedy. The Council also agreed to remind its staff to properly consider affordability in homelessness cases.