The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has ordered London City Council to pay £6,000 in compensation to a family who were left “forgotten” and sofa surfing for 12 months.
Waltham Forest Town Hall (Photo: Google Street View)
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London City Council pays homeless sofa-surfing family £6,000 for ‘forgetting’ #UKhousing
The family became homeless in August 2022, but the Ombudsman investigated the family’s complaint and found that Waltham Forest Council had a legal duty to help the family at the time, but that it had not yet provided provisional assistance. It turned out that we were not doing enough to help people find temporary accommodation.
In January 2023, the city council wrote to the family saying they had been sofa surfing with friends but failed to make an arranged phone appointment to check on the situation.
About three months later, the family told the city council they were still staying with friends and family and were having difficulty sending their children to school due to the long distances they had to travel.
The City Council decided in August 2023 that because the family’s circumstances had changed, there would be no primary housing obligation and the responsibility for helping the family find accommodation would end.
Local authority and social care ombudsman Amardeep Somal said: “The council had a duty to assist this family with their 12 months of homelessness, but we were unable to help them find suitable accommodation. “We cannot demonstrate that we have taken any proactive steps to do so or to consider alternative accommodation.” , properties with fewer bedrooms than necessary.
“Its own records show that for most of that period it had no idea where the family lived. If the family had not been forgotten, it is likely that they would have been able to secure accommodation with the help of the council. Instead, they had to rely on the goodwill of family and friends to install them in a location away from their children’s schools.
“Given that this incident involved homeless children, we would have expected the City Council to work with the Department of Children’s Services to make sure they were safe. For a year, we have not been able to do that. .”
Ms Somal also expressed concern that the council had not been able to confirm with the monitoring committee how many other families were on interim assignments but were not being provided accommodation.
He added: “While we understand there is a serious lack of suitable accommodation, particularly in London, it is not enough to simply say there is a lack of available accommodation due to staff shortages. “We must fulfill our statutory obligations,” he added.
“The council has now told us that investment in more accommodation for people in the borough is moving forward. The recommendations they have agreed to implement will further improve the service the company provides. I hope that.”
In this case, the council apologized to the family and agreed to pay them a total of £6,000 for the time they spent without temporary accommodation.
The Ombudsman also imposed a duty on Waltham Forest to provide transitional accommodation where it has “reason to believe” that the person is homeless, eligible for support and in priority need. We recommended that staff be reminded of this.
Councils will now need to demonstrate the steps they are taking to procure sufficient interim mitigation, including an update on progress after nine months.
This will explain the steps taken to reduce delays in homelessness decision-making due to staffing shortages and develop an action plan on how to address delays in the second stage of complaints processing. This is in addition to an explanation of the measures taken.
Ahsan Khan, deputy leader and cabinet member for housing and regeneration at Waltham Forest Council, said: “We are committed to ensuring that people who approach us at risk of homelessness receive the help and support they deserve. We are working hard to make sure you receive it. We know how worrying and stressful it can be for anyone who finds themselves in this situation.
“We know that in this case we fell short of the high standards we set for ourselves. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Earlier this month, the Housing Ombudsman ordered Waltham Forest Council to pay £18,800 in compensation following three counts of serious misconduct.
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