Proposed changes to guidelines relating to the location of temporary
accommodation for homeless households – January 2015
Background Information
The Council has to provide temporary accommodation for people who apply as homeless, if it has
reason to believe that the household may be homeless, eligible and in priority need, as defined by
homelessness legislation. It must also continue to provide accommodation to a household that has
been accepted as homeless while longer term accommodation is found.
Homelessness services and temporary accommodation are paid for by the Council’s General Fund
and currently cost over £3.8 million annually. There has been a sharp rise in homelessness
presentations in Waltham Forest over the past year, largely due to local increases in rent and to
welfare benefit reforms. Rent increases also mean that temporary accommodation for homeless
households is becoming scarce and expensive, both within Waltham Forest and in the surrounding
areas.
Because of this, there is a risk that the annual cost of temporary accommodation will increase
significantly, with a possible overspend of £861,000 in 2014-15, and additional expenditure of
£2,440,000 in 2015-16.
The Council could fund the additional expenditure but this would increase the financial burden on
other services and residents, therefore the Council’s preferred option is to think of ways to reduce
these costs, to avoid having to find additional money to cover the additional expenditure. We have
set out below the alternatives that the Council has identified and reasons why those are not being
proposed at present.
To address the need to reduce the potential additional expenditure, we are considering the option of
changing our guidelines for where we place people in temporary accommodation, and would like to
hear your views.
Location of temporary accommodation
Waltham Forest currently has guidelines for the location of offers of temporary accommodation. The
guidelines separate homeless households requiring temporary accommodation into three main
groups and set out different criteria for each of these groups about where they should be placed.
The current category guidelines are:
Group A are, where possible, offered accommodation in Waltham Forest, adjacent boroughs, or
boroughs in the East London sub-region. The group consists of homeless households who include:
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a child in secondary school in their final year of key stage 4 (generally year 11)
a child who has a Statement of Special Educational Needs
a child who is the subject of Child Protection Order Plan
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someone who is receiving NHS treatment for mental health problems other than from their
GP and/or is on the Care Programme Approach
someone who is caring for another person in the borough, subject to certain criteria.
Group B are prioritised for temporary accommodation in a borough which is one hour’s travelling
distance on public transport from LBWF. The group consists of homeless households who include:
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a child in primary school in LBWF or neighbouring boroughs
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a child in secondary school either in LBWF or neighbouring boroughs
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somebody in permanent or settled employment
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somebody who is receiving medical treatment that can only be provided by a specific medical
facility
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Lone parent households with a baby under 6 months at the time of allocation
Group C are all other homeless households who are offered temporary accommodation where the
borough is able to provide it.
Proposal for change
The Council is proposing to amend the above guidelines by removing the requirement that we
automatically prioritise the categories in Group B for housing that is within one hour’s travelling
time from LBWF.
At the same time, we propose to move the households where one person is receiving medical
treatment that can only be provided by a specific medical facility (currently in Group B) into Group
A.
This means that there would be two groups instead of three:
The priority group would, where possible, be offered temporary accommodation in Waltham Forest,
adjacent boroughs, or boroughs in the East London sub-region, and would consist of households that
include:
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a child in secondary school in their final year of key stage 4 (generally year 11)
a child who has a Statement of Special Educational Needs
a child who is the subject of Child Protection Order Plan
someone who is receiving NHS treatment for mental health problems other than from their
GP and/or is on the Care Programme Approach
someone who is caring for another person in the borough, subject to certain criteria.
someone who is receiving medical treatment that can only be provided by a specific medical
facility
All other homeless households would be offered temporary accommodation wherever the borough
is able to procure it, provided that it is suitable for the household’s needs.
It is important to note that a household’s individual circumstances (i.e. the household’s needs) will
always be taken into account when making an allocation of temporary accommodation. This means
that for some households factors such as the distance from Waltham Forest, any disruption caused
to employment, education or caring arrangements, access to medical facilities and proximity to
other amenities could still mean that households are under the proposed new guidelines provided
with temporary accommodation nearer to the borough.
What alternatives could we consider?
1) The Council could do nothing to address the problem. This would lead to a potential
overspend of £861k in the current year and an increase in the overall budget from £3.8m
this year to £6.3m in 2015/16.
2) The Council could increase the Council Tax to cover the additional costs. This would mean
that we would lose the government grant funding that we get because the Council Tax is
frozen, and would mean extra costs for Council Tax payers.
3) The Council could reduce spending on other services to pay for the increased cost of
homelessness. We have already made substantial cuts to the amount spent on services. It
has so far identified £68million and still has to find at least £45million more. Any further
reductions would seriously compromise the Council’s ability to provide a decent service to
residents.
4) The Council could use what are called the Council’s reserves. Like other Councils, and as
recommended by the Government, the Council keeps reserves, to meet sudden, unexpected
costs. The Council currently holds £10.684million within the General Fund balance. While
we could use these reserves to help meet the additional expenditure, they are intended to
act as a ‘cushion’ if we need to react to unforeseen events in the future. Using them in this
way might place a risk on the Council being able to deal with an emergency effectively. As
these reserves are already factored in to the Council’s financial plans, this option would only
provide a short-term solution.
Now that you have read this document, we would like to find out your views on our
proposals. Please return to the website and click on the link to complete the survey.