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Luton Borough Council

The steps we'll take to help you

 

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Assessments and personalised housing plans

If you're eligible we'll carry out an assessment of your circumstances if you are homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days.

This will identify what has caused your homelessness or threat of homelessness. We'll assess what your housing needs are and any support needs you may have, in order to be able to secure and retain accommodation.

We'll work with you to develop a personalised housing plan which will include the actions (or ‘reasonable steps’) to be taken by us and by you to try to prevent or relieve your homelessness.

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Investigation in to why you’re homeless

Intentionality

Before we decide how we can help, we need to see if you've made yourself intentionally homelessness. We’ll look at:

  • the cause and circumstances surrounding your homelessness
  • whether you are homeless through no fault of your own

If you lost your home through something you did, or failed to do as ‘a deliberate act’ which you knew would make you homeless, then you may be found ‘intentionally homeless’.

If you're found to be intentionally homeless we won't offer a longer term home and may refer you to social services for them to:

  • carry out an assessment of your family’s needs
  • see whether they can help you

Local connection

If you make an application for housing, you need to show you have connection with the area that you are applying to. If you don't have a local connection to the area, you could be referred to a different council for help.

What is a local connection?

To decide if you have a local connection, we'll look at whether you (or anyone in your household):

  • live or have lived in the area for six out of the last 12 months, or three out of the last five years - you must have chosen to live in the area and being in prison or in a hospital does not count
  • have family in the area - your close family must have lived in the area for at least five years, and you must want to live near them (close family is normally limited to parents, children, brothers or sisters)
  • work in the area - full or part time but casual work does not count
  • have a special reason to be in the area, which could be that you need to live in the area to receive specialist health care not available elsewhere
  • were in care in the area - applies to homeless applications made on after 3 April 2018 only

You have a local connection with a council:

  • that owes you leaving care duties
  • where you were in care for two continuous years before your 18th birthday, some of which was before you turned 16

A local connection because of being in care will last until your 21st birthday, or sometimes until you finish your education.

If you have a local connection with Luton, we must help you. If you don’t have a local connection then we are likely to refer you to another council where you do have a connection if safe to do so.

 

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I’m not happy with the decision you've made

If you don't think the decision we've made about your situation or the housing accommodation you've been offered is correct, you can ask us to review that decision. Expand this tab to find out how.

You can ask for a review if you disagree with the council's decision about your homeless application. This includes any decision that says you:

  • aren't eligible for assistance
  • aren't homeless or threatened with homelessness
  • don't have a priority need
  • have made yourself homeless intentionally
  • don't have a local connection and should be referred to another council

You can also ask for a review if you disagree on:

  • the steps the council will need to take in order to prevent or relieve your homelessness
  • the ending of the prevention or relief duty
  • the notification that states you have deliberately and unreasonably refused to cooperate with us
  • a referral we have made to another local authority area on local connection grounds, including the referral of the relief duty

You may ask for a review if you feel you have been offered unsuitable accommodation. This applies to:

  • temporary accommodation offered or provided to you after your homeless application was accepted by the council
  • a settled housing offer made by the council

You can ask for a review of suitability whether you have accepted the offer or not. If you don't have anywhere else to stay it may be better to accept an offer of unsuitable housing because:

  • there's no guarantee that you will be offered something more suitable
  • you'll have somewhere to stay while the council reviews its decision
  • you'll have somewhere to stay if your review is unsuccessful

It can be difficult to challenge the suitability of emergency accommodation provided to you while the council looks into your situation. This can only be done by going to court.

Get advice before turning down any offer we've made you. We may not help you further.

You can't ask the council to review a decision it has already reviewed.

How to request a review

You have to ask for a review within 21 days of getting the written decision letter. The 21 days starts from the date that you receive the letter.

You can request a review verbally or in writing. A request for a review can be made by another person on your behalf. Send your request to this address:

Review Manager
Housing Solutions team
Luton Council
Town Hall
George Street
Luton
Bedfordshire, LU1 2BQ

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