I am a benefits specialist, not a homelessness adviser, but I am reasonably familiar with homelessness law. If you have any doubt about anything in this post, follow the link to the Homelessness Code of Guidance where you will find the official government position about these things.
The Housing Act 1996 says that if you ask a local council for help with housing, there are two routes that you can take:
- Part six of the act deals with allocation of housing accommodation from a housing register, or waiting list
- Part seven of the act deals with applying for help as a homeless person
Both of these routes have rules relating to local connection.
Essentially each council can make its own rules about its register or waiting list – so that’s not what this post is about.
Instead, this is about local connection in the law of homelessness – where the same rules apply throughout England.
Homelessness Law
The law of homelessness includes four hurdles that you must jump to be entitled to the homelessness relief duty or the main homelessness duty
1 – You must be eligible for assistance – which relates to your nationality
2 – You must be homeless – which does not necessarily mean that you do not have a roof over your head. You are homeless, even if you have accommodation, if it is not reasonable for you to continue to occupy it.
3 – You must be in priority need of accommodation
4 – You must not be intentionally homeless
If you jump these hurdles then the homelessness relief duty will apply and (eventually) the main duty can apply and council will have a legal responsibility to secure that accommodation is available for occupation by the applicant and their household.
But so far Local Connection hasn’t come up.
Local Connection: The Theory
Once the council has decided that you have jumped the first four homelessness hurdles and that the homelessness relief duty or main homelessness duties apply, the next question is which council is going to help you sort out your re-housing.
If you have a local connection with the council that you have applied to, then it’s that council who must help you with re-housing.
But, if you don’t have a local connection with the council that you applied to, they can look to pass you onto another council to help you sort out your re-housing.
They can only do this if:
1 – You don’t have a local connection with the area of the council that you have applied to, and,
2 – you do have a local connection with another local authority, and,
3 – neither the applicant nor any person who might reasonably be expected to reside with him will run the risk of domestic abusein that other district.
People often say that the local connection rule does not apply if you have have become homeless as a result of domestic abuse – but this is wrong.
The local connection rule still applies – but the Local Authority cannot refer you to another council if doing so would cause a risk.
The homelessness code of guidance for local authorities is the government’s instructions to councils about how to apply homelessness law. The section about local connection says: a housing authority cannot refer an applicant to another housing authority if they or anyone who might reasonably be expected to reside with them would be at risk of domestic abuse or other violence. The housing authority is under a positive duty to enquire whether the applicant would be at such a risk and, if they would, should not assume that the applicant will take steps to deal with the threat [paragraph 10:52]
What Counts as a Local Connection?
You have a local connection with an area if:
- You normally live there, or have lived there, through choice. An agreement between the councils says that normally lived there means six out of the last 12 months or three out of the last five years. The code of guidance says that time spent sofa-surfing in an area can count.
- You are are employed there – actually working in that area, not just working for a company based there
- You have family associations with the area. the guidance says this may extend beyond partners, parents, adult children or siblings and might include other family members such as step-parents, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts or uncles provided there are sufficiently close links in the form of frequent contact, commitment or dependency. Although, if the council is trying to pass you onto another authority, the code says that they should not identify a local connection through family associations with an area other than the one where the applicant positively wants to live
- here are special circumstances such as the need to be near special medical or support services which are available only in a particular district.
How This Works In The Real World
In reality, many local council homelessness officers use both the housing register and the local connection rule as a way of deterring people from applying.
If I go to the council and ask for homelessness assistance I may be told that I must apply to be put on the register: This is good advice, but it should not be instead of treating me as a person who is applying as homeless, it should be as well as this.
The law is clear – if I tell the council that I am homeless, or threatened with homelessness, they must make enquiries (i.e. take an application from me) to suss out whether they have to help me, and what help they must give.
If I go to the council and ask for homelessness assistance, I may be told that there is no point, because I don’t have a local connection – or that I have a stronger local connection elsewhere.
Both of these are wrong. Although they can ask about your local connection at the time you apply, they can only refer you to another council once it has been decided that they must help you. And any local connection will do. The fact that you have what they think is a stronger local connection elsewhere is irrelevant.