When idiots collide

It appears that our head idiot recently met with the other head idiots of surrounding boroughs and has come back with a new proposal, well actually it is now unwritten policy.
From now on when we are presented with a client who is fleeing domestic violence then we should seek to place them in a refuge rather than take a homelessness application. To quote from a briefing that we had today "Its not just about reducing homelessness applications, but making sure they are safe"

Well excuse me but making people who may have suffered possibly the most traumatic period of their lives having to move miles away from the support of their friends or family how is that helping them? I know that the refuge's do a superb job in helping victims of domestic violence, but they can't do it on their own!

Well I'm back and am venting!!!!!!!!!!

It seems to me that the push for offering "Options" to clients who are threatened with homeless or are actually homeless means that they are basically being mislead, misinformed or even in some cases actually lied to! I'm sorry I recognise that offering "Options" can be a good thing, but not if local authorities are lying to people. Only recently in my work place I was passed a case from our prevention and option team they had been dealing with the case for a number of months but had only now passed it for a Part VII assessment because the applicant had had contacted a solicitor who had written in asking why no decision had been made, the Options staffed wrote back and lied stating that a Part VII application had been taken 3 months ago, but a decision would be made in the next 7 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would say to anyone who represents clients in respect of homelessness applications to ask for a copy of the clients file and check when the client approached the Authority and when the Authority officially took a homelessness application. Willing to bet you'll find many cases where the duty to investigate under Part VII was triggered but was ignored!

Well I'm back

Sorry I haven't posted recently but due to being the victim of a burglary I've only just replaced the computer. I suppose that every cloud has a silver lining as I now have a snazzy lap top and a pc

A challenge to the advice agencies out there

Why or why has no homeless charity decided to go undercover and do a mystery shopper exercise so that they can name and shame the LA's that are gatekeeping and denying people the right to make Part VII applications?

Until this issue is pushed into the public domain, more and more people will be stopped from homelessness applications.

In my authority its become a case of not taking an application until the latest possible moment, people are being made to stay in overcrowded conditions whilst privarely rented accommodation is sought for them. Even when property is obtained they are forced at times to accept the property by tactics that border on bullying

Lions led by donkeys

Heard a terrific bit of tittle tattle from a colleague of mine in another local authority. Apparently their head honcho (and I do mean top of the tree), is telling the managers that there are no homeless people in that borough, just people with housing needs.

Maybe I should hold a competition to see if anyone can identify this escaped lunatic, oops fingers slipped, meant wise man. Prize could be a something exciting like.......a free picture of that individual to do with what you liked

Talk about spending a penny......

Well this is a very interesting set of figures, the GMB union has just obtained how much local authority's spend on temporary and agency staff. Want to see how much your council is spending? Check where your money is going? As the union says it would be better if the local authorities spent the money on permanent posts

I'm still struggling to comprehend the figures, £1.7 billion spent in total!

A comment I recieved

Following my post below on the Trailblazers" scheme I recieved the following by email, "If you aren't up on welfare and benefits should you really be giving housing advice? Your employer should be providing this training, surely?"

Well, housing advisors advice as it says on the tin, they give housing advice. Whilst I have had basic training on welfare benefits I am not an expert. I would hate to give incorrect advice to a client that led to them losing out. As anyone recognises welfare benefits are a highly specialised area