Contents

Introduction

The Housing Advice Unit at Waltham Forest Housing Services gives free advice on housing matters to all residents within the borough.

If you are experiencing problems you should get advice. You can do this by contacting the Housing Advice Unit, Citizens Advice Bureau or a solicitor specialising in housing.

When you seek advice, you should take any documentation that is relevant to your case. For example, your original tenancy agreement, court papers, correspondence from your landlord, housing benefit, or solicitor. Even if you do not have any papers, you should still get advice.

When reading this information, it is important to remember that the laws concerning housing and welfare rights are very complicated. The information here cannot explain everything; it is intended to provide a guide to enable you to exercise your rights.

This web page gives some details about how the Council deals with applications for housing from people who are homeless, or soon to become homeless, and who have no children of school age or below, living with them.

Homelessness

If you have rights to any home – for example, somewhere that your former partner is living – you should discuss this with a Housing Adviser.  You can lose rights to rehousing by the Council if you give up a home which we think you had some rights to. Any doubts over whether you are homeless or not will hold up your application.

Vulnerability

We will only make a decision about vulnerability if we think that you are, or soon will be, homeless.

Single people, and couples without children, do not qualify for rehousing under the homelessness legislation except for a minority who are classed as ‘vulnerable’.

The people who are most likely to be considered as vulnerable are those who are less able to find or keep private accommodation than other homeless people.

  • Being in receipt of benefit, is, on its own, not usually enough to make somebody vulnerable
  • If you are aged 60 or over we will nearly always decide that you are vulnerable
  • If you have physical health problems or a physical disability, a Senior Housing Officer will decide if you are vulnerable after getting medical information from yourself, in some instances your doctor(s), and the Council’s own Disability Panel
  • If you have other problems (such as mental health difficulties, or experience of serious harassment or abuse) the Vulnerability Panel – a panel of senior officers from Housing and Social Services – will consider all the relevant information such as medical and psychiatric reports along with all the information you have given us about yourself.  The more you tell us, the easier it is for us to deal with your application speedily and fairly.  This Panel will also look at what support you need and whether you will be able to cope with living on your own.

For example, if you need help from Social Services in looking after your home, or if you need help with a drug or alcohol problem, the Panel will want details of what has been arranged. They may recommend some specialist type of housing, such as a hostel with full-time support workers, if they think this is in your best interest at present.

The Panel does not make the final decision about re-housing, it is made at a later stage by the Homeless Persons Unit.

Temporary accommodation

If you become homeless before we have finished dealing with your housing application, we may be able to arrange emergency temporary accommodation. However, this is usually hostel-type accommodation, involving sharing some facilities with other homeless people. Wherever possible we advise people to stay on temporarily in their present accommodation, or with friends and relatives, until we have finished dealing with their application.

For up-to-date information about hostel vacancies in London (or any other part of the UK), please visit the Homeless UK website.

Waltham Forest Churches provide a day centre and a night shelter for the homeless on Forest Road in Walthamstow. For more information about Branches Day Centre and Night Shelter please visit their website or contact them on 020 8521 7773.

What happens if the Council does not house you?

The Council only accepts a small proportion of homeless people as vulnerable. Even some people with quite serious physical or mental health problems are not considered vulnerable. Sometimes we decide that someone is vulnerable but we do not agree to rehouse them, for example, because we think they are to blame for losing their home.

There are many alternatives to Council accommodation (such as hostels, the private rented sector and temporary Housing Association tenancies) for people who do not qualify for rehousing by the Council, but this can be very hard to arrange at short notice. You should discuss these alternatives with your case worker in Housing Advice when you first apply for re-housing.

If you are able to save any money at all, this will increase your choice of private rented accommodation greatly. It is a good idea to start looking for your own alternative accommodation as soon as you can. Do not wait until the decision on your vulnerability, so that you will be prepared if the Council does not house you.

Remember

  • Be prepared – ask about alternatives to council housing early in case you need them
  • Give us full information about your present and past homes
  • Tell us (in strict confidence) about any other problem which you think makes your housing problem worse

Review of a negative decision if you approached us as homeless

If the council has reached a decision on your homelessness application (under part VII Housing Act 1996 Homelessness incorporating the Homelessness Act 2002) then you have a right to a review as laid out below.

You have the right to request a review of this decision and of the suitability of any offer you may be made. If you want to do this you can print out the Review Request Form and bring it in to the reception at Cedar Wood House, 2d Fulbourne Rd, Walthamstow  E17 4GG. Alternatively you can collect one from the Homeless Persons Unit Administrative Team at Cedar Wood House. The review will be carried out by a Housing Officer who was not involved in the original decision and who is senior to the person who took it.

If you decide to ask for a review of the decision contained in the Section 184 letter, the completed review request form must be received by the Housing Department at Cedar Wood House within 21 days of receiving the Section 184 letter.

Similarly, if you ask for a review of any offer of accommodation that has been made to you, the completed Review Request Form needs to be returned to Housing Services in Cedar Wood House within 21 days of receiving the offer. You can accept the offer of accommodation and still request that we review its suitability.

We will accept representations from either you or from a person acting on your behalf.  You can also tell us about, or enclose any new information of which we were not already aware and which may be relevant. You do not, however, have to give any specific grounds for asking for a review and can simply date, sign and return the Review Request Form.

We will ordinarily complete the review of our original decision within 56 days of you returning the Review Request Form and send you the outcome in writing. In exceptional circumstances, if you raise new issues which need confirmation or further investigation and which is likely to take more than 56 days to complete, we will contact you.

If the outcome of your review is negative, you have the right to apply to a County Court on a point of law.  You must do this within 21 days of the review decision.

Leaflets online

The above leaflets are all available free of charge, by downloading from this web site, by post or in person from our office.

Contact us

If you have other questions, please contact your caseworker in the Housing Advice section.  If we decide that you are homeless but not vulnerable, your housing application will be dealt with by the Registrations section.

The Housing Advice Unit and Homeless Persons Unit are at:

Housing Services

Cedar Wood House
2d Fulbourne Road
Walthamstow  E17 4GG  (map)


Tel 020 8496 3000
Fax 020 8496 5431
Email housing.advice@walthamforest.gov.uk

Our office is located on Fulbourne Road.

Open to personal callers: Monday-Thursday, 9am-4.30pm; Fridays 10am-4.30pm

Telephone enquiries: 020 8496 5575, Monday-Thursday 9am-5.15pm; Friday 9am-5pm