ABOUT HOMELESSNESS

Overview

• Definitions of Homelessness
• Homelessness versus Rough Sleeping
• What homeless people are entitled to

This section explores the different definitions that are applied to homeless people and their entitlements to local authority accommodation and services, as determined by the legislative frameworks in England, Scotland and Wales.

Definitions of Homelessness

• Legally homeless: A household is legally homeless if either there is no accommodation that they are entitled to occupy or they have accommodation but it is not reasonable for them to continue to occupy this accommodation (see Legal Definition of Homelessness section).
• Officially recognised as homeless: Those who are both legally homeless and have successfully applied to their local authority to be classified as such in the current year. A household can be legally homeless but not recognised by the state as being homeless because they have not applied to be classified as such.
• Statutory homeless: Households that have been found to be eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and falling within a priority need group and thus owed a main homelessness duty by a local housing authority.. In 2006-07, 73,360 households were accepted as statutory homeless in England. Local Authorities made 159,330 decisions on homelessness applications.
• Hidden homeless: This refers to homeless households, which may or may not have applied to local authorities for homeless status, but are not entitled to any accommodation. Crisis estimates that there are around 400,000 such 'hidden homeless' adults at any point in time.

Homelessness versus rough sleeping

Homelessness is much wider than rough sleeping; for example, whereas official figures estimate that there are around 500 people sleeping rough on any one night, around 120,000 households in England were officially recognised as being homeless under the legal definition in 2006 (see England - Trends over Time).

What homeless people are entitled to

The legislative frameworks in England, Scotland and Wales, determine the entitlements of homeless people, which are very different in England and Wales, than in Scotland. In England and Wales, all households which are officially recognised as homeless are entitled to advice and support from their local authority under the 2002 Homelessness Act, which also stipulates a minimum level of advice to be given. However, a household is only entitled to accommodation from their local authority if they are classified as unintentionally homeless,^[1] in priority need, and with a local connection.^[2]

Households are classified as in priority need either if they have dependent children or if they are classified as 'vulnerable'. If households do not have dependent children and are not deemed to be 'vulnerable', then they are classified as not in priority need and are only entitled to advice and support. In practice, this means that around a third of households officially recognised as homeless are not entitled to accommodation (see English Legisaltive Framework and Welsh Legislative Framework).

Scotland's legislative framework has historically been similar to that of England and Wales. Importantly, however, Scotland is in the process of abolishing the distinction between in priority need and not in priority need. The 2003 Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act states that, from the end of 2012, the distinction will cease to exist and that all homeless households will be entitled to accommodation rather than just those who are in priority need. In the meantime, homeless households judged to be not in priority need are entitled to at least temporary accommodation as a result of the 2001 Housing (Scotland) Act. The 2003 Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act has also suspended the local connection clause of the 1996 Housing Act in Scotland, meaning that a local authority can no longer deny applicants help if they are deemed to have a stronger local connection with another local authority, and the Act has also increased the rights granted to those judged to be intentionally homeless (see Scottish Legislative Framework).

In England and Wales, the system effectively operates on a rationing basis, with only some homeless households entitled to accommodation. In Scotland, by contrast, the system will effectively operate on a rights basis, with all homeless households entitled to accommodation, when the priority need distinction is abolished in 2012.

In England and Wales, some policy makers tend to equate homelessness with those judged to be in priority need and may therefore regard the current situation as pretty satisfactory: all those judged to be in priority need are subsequently provided with accommodation by their local authority. But those who take a broader view in line with the actual legal definition are likely to view the current situation as much less satisfactory: every year, around 40,000 households are officially recognised by their local authority as being homeless but are not provided with any accommodation because they are not considered to be in priority need. Similarly, the abolition of priority need in Scotland has arisen precisely because of a concern about what was happening to those previously deemed not in priority need. Because of the low importance assigned in England and Wales to homeless households not in priority need, very few statistics are collected about their circumstances and characteristics.

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End notes

[1] A household is considered to be intentionally homeless where they are considered to have brought homelessness on themselves through a deliberate action or omission (non-action) unless they were not aware of a relevant fact. Back to text

[2] The local connection clause means that applicants can be denied help from the local authority if they are deemed to have a stronger local connection with another local authority. A local connection is determined by whether a person is or was a resident in the area, because the person is employed in the area (in both cases for 6 of the previous 12 months), whether the person has family associations there, or whether the person has special circumstances that require them to be in the area (e.g. health needs). Back to text

Page last modified on 14/07/2008 at 15:16