LGO tells council to review procedures for dealing with homelessness applications

The Local Government Ombudsman has called on a London borough to review the way it handles homelessness applications in their early stages.

Dr Jane Martin made the recommendation after finding Newham Council guilty of maladministration causing injustice in a case where a woman with a young son approached the authority in February 2012 for help with housing.

The complainant had been told by her sister that she could no longer live with her.

The report revealed that it took more than two months for Newham to give the woman an appointment with its Housing Options Team.

The authority refused her request to bring the appointment forward and also failed to offer her interim accommodation.

It was only after a family therapist intervened that such accommodation was offered.

The LGO said: “The law and Government guidance say that a council must provide suitable accommodation if it has reason to believe an applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness.”

The report added: “The council counts the time it takes to reach decisions on homelessness applications from the date its Housing Options Team interviews applicants rather than the date of their approach to the council. These interviews are routinely at least two months after the date of approach.”

Finding that Newham’s approach was “flawed”, Dr Martin said: “The complainant’s appointment with the Housing Options Service was not for two-and-a-half months after she had approached the council. That is far too long. I recognise the council faces the dual pressures of limited resources and increasing numbers of homelessness applications. However, it needs to ensure it complies with its duties to people who are homeless.”

On the issue of interim accommodation, the Ombudsman added: “The council has made much of the fact that the complainant was never actually homeless.

“However, the council is only able to justify what it did with the benefit of hindsight. When she approached it for help on 13 February 2012 saying her sister had asked her to leave, the council did not know she would be able to stay for another month.”

In addition to calling on Newham to review its procedures, the LGO said it should apologise to the complainant, pay her £250 and backdate her homelessness application to 13 February 2012.