Briefing: "It's a personal thing" What service users need from assessments and personalised housing plans - Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

By: Deborah Garvie
Published: November 2017

"It's a personal thing" What service users need from assessments and personalised housing plans - Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

Guided by our Expert Panel of service users, this briefing makes a number of recommendations to local housing authorities covering:

  • Early advice to prevent homelessness.

  • Improvements to service delivery by involving people with lived-experience in the design of their services; training staff to ensure that people are treated with empathy, dignity and respect and ensuring that people are not kept waiting for lengthy periods.

  • Assessment of housing and support needs of the entire household, including a brief housing history, with the wishes and preferences of the applicant (including possible trade-offs) used as the starting point for help given.

  • Genuinely personalised plans, tailored to meet the specific housing advice and support needs of the applicant and identifying the most appropriate accommodation options given their housing history.

The Government should commit to regulations on whether it's reasonable to expect people to occupy beyond the expiry of a valid Section 21 if housing authorities continue to flout the strengthened guidance post-implementation.