INTENTIONALLY HOMELESS LEGISLATION APPLIED TO ALL

Following implementation of The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 earlier this year, Carmarthenshire County Council has made its declaration to Welsh Government that it will continue to investigate all priority need groups who have potentially made themselves ‘intentionally homeless’.

This means that housing officers will apply legislation to investigate all cases where they believe a person has rendered themselves homeless by deliberately leaving accommodation which is available to them, and where they can reasonably live.

In these circumstances, the law does not require the council to support them.

Welsh Government required that all councils declare which priority needs groups it would apply intentionally homeless legislation to, and today, the Executive Board Member for Housing, Cllr Linda Evans, has declared that – from July 4 2015 – the council will apply the definition to all.

The priority needs groups are households that include dependent children or a pregnant woman, and people who are:

• vulnerable due to old age;
• vulnerable to physical disabilities or mental illness/learning disability;
• vulnerable due to being a care leaver/or a young person at particular risk of sexual or financial exploitation (18-20 year olds);
• vulnerable due to being a 16 or 17 year old;
• vulnerable due to fleeing domestic violence/abuse or threatened violence;
• vulnerable due to leaving the armed forces;
• vulnerable due to other reasons, this may include ex offenders vulnerable because of the length of a custodial sentence.

Cllr Evans said: “We take all applications of homelessness seriously, however, where we believe a person may have become homeless deliberately, we will use the authority granted to us under the Housing (Wales) Act to fully investigate their circumstances.

“This ensures we are able to continue prioritising our support to those who are in highest need.”

The focus of The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 is on the prevention of homelessness and taking reasonable steps to alleviate potential homelessness.

The Act states that: “A person is intentionally homeless if ….the person deliberately does, or fails to do, anything in consequence of which the person ceases to occupy accommodation which is available for the person’s occupation and which it would have been reasonable for the person to continue to occupy”.

This definition is no different to the previous Housing Act, however, some changes have been introduced on how it is applied.