Homelessness - a forgotten duty
Gypsies or Travellers living in caravans who have nowhere lawful to station them are homeless under the Homelessness Legislation. As such they are entitled to make a homelessness application to the relevant local authority and when doing so request that they be provided with a pitch on which to station their caravans (or at least a temporary stopping place), rather than conventional bricks and mortar accommodation.
A local authority that has reason to believe that an applicant for homeless persons accommodation may be homeless or threatened with homelessness must investigate the matter further and must accept and process an application from that applicant. In a case taken by the Housing Team at Community Law Partnership, R (Aweys) and Others – v – Birmingham City Council[1], Collins J stated:-
It is apparent that the threshold for the duty of Councils to act under s184 [of the Housing Act 1996 - the duty to make enquiries where someone is homeless or threatened with homelessness] is a low one....since it arises if they have reason to believe that the applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness. In the vast majority of cases, the making of the application will mean that it is difficult if not impossible for the Council not to believe that the applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness. Furthermore, no particular form of application is prescribed. This is not surprising since the provisions are dealing with people who are likely to be vulnerable and who cannot be expected to have obtained legal advice or to have an acquaintance with the statutory provisions. If it is apparent from what is said by an applicant (for there is no requirement that an application be in writing) or from anything in writing that he may be homeless or threatened with homelessness, the duty is triggered.
When a local authority takes steps to evict a Gypsy or Traveller family camped in its area or is approached by such a family for advice and assistance on the provision of a pitch on an authorised site, the local authority should, at the very least, indicate to that family that they are entitled to make a homelessness application. However, the Travellers Advice Team (TAT) cannot recall an occasion when this has actually happened.
TAT has found that many of those Gypsies and Travellers that have made homelessness applications have encountered considerable problems when trying to do so. Some authorities try to put them on the ordinary housing register or say that they are not homeless because they have their caravan or caravans whilst others are turned away because they are told that the local authority only has conventional housing to offer. Rejection of homelessness applications on those grounds is unlawful.
Those Gypsies and Travellers who have their applications accepted are often met with a response from the local authority to the effect that there are no vacancies on official Gypsy/Traveller sites in its area and are made an offer of bricks and mortar, usually in the form of bed and breakfast accommodation. However, it is surely not beyond the wit of any local authority to at least identify a place where the Gypsies or Travellers concerned could stop temporarily until more suitable accommodation becomes available and Gypsies and Travellers and those advising them should make this point if met with such a response.
It is important that Gypsies, Travellers and their advisers and supporters are aware of this important homelessness duty and that local authorities are not allowed to forget that it applies equally to all members of our society and not just those who wish to live in bricks and mortar.
Note: For more details see Chapter 6 in Johnson and Willers Eds, Gypsy and Traveller Law (Legal Action, 2nd Edition, 2007)
Chris Johnson, Travellers Advice Team at Community Law Partnership
Thanks to Marc Willers of Garden Court Chambers for his comments on this blog
The Travellers Advice Team at the Community Law Partnership runs a Community Legal Advice Funded Telephone Helpline (0845 120 2980) which is available Monday to Friday 10.00 am to 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm.
Thanks also to our TAT Administrator, Emma Westwood, for organising this blog.
[1] A case subsequently appealed to the House of Lords by Birmingham City Council but not on this point.