Homeless drug users can apply for assistance from the local housing authority under its statutory homelessness duties. Single homeless people without dependents have to demonstrate some form of vulnerability that makes homelessness more harmful to them than the general person in order to achieve priority under these arrangements. Drug use in itself – problematic or not – does not confer this priority status. Factors that may confer priority status include, for instance, a history of long and recurring periods in institutional care (such as a care home or prison), diagnosed and serious mental ill health, a serious medical condition (which may be linked to drug use), an applicant who is under 18 or over 65.
Local housing authorities have to follow Statutory Homelessness Guidance when assessing individual cases. This requires authorities to undertake an assessment of whether the applicant really is homeless, whether they made themselves intentionally homeless, whether they are eligible for public housing assistance and finally, whether they have a local connection (or should be referred to another authority). Some authorities assume that homelessness has been ‘intentional’ if the individual has lost their home due to drug use but has not engaged in treatment services to remedy that.
The assessment made by the authority is typically focused on determining whether a statutory duty exists or not, and very rarely extends to cover needs that fall outside that question. Drug use is therefore incidental to the assessment and, if it is present, may be unlikely to be either identified or responded to by the caseworker assessing the case.
In areas of high housing need, households found to be statutory homeless are rarely referred directly into social housing but instead go into some form of temporary accommodation. For single homeless people this may start with a short period in a bed and breakfast hotel or council hostel/reception centre, followed by referral into private sector leased accommodation. All of these different types of accommodation are described below.
Bed and breakfast accommodation can be a very flexible resource for housing authorities. They typically ‘spot’ purchase places for homeless applicants whilst an assessment of their eligibility for assistance under homelessness legislation is being assessed. The placement can be terminated easily as the resident has no security of tenure in this type of accommodation. The rent and most of the service charges for bed and breakfast accommodation, plus an administration fee to cover the council’s placement costs, are eligible for housing benefit.
The term ‘bed and breakfast’ can be misleading as it implies that the accommodation is typical hotel accommodation with little or no cooking facilities. However this is not necessarily the case. Although many bed and breakfast placements are in shared accommodation (private bedrooms with shared bathroom and minimal cooking facilities), the term is also often used to describe self-contained accommodation that is offered by a ’hotel’ provider. Self contained accommodation of this type is typically called a ‘B&B annex’.
Where the local housing authority has arrangements in place to purchase places in bed and breakfast for statutory homeless households it may be possible to‘buy into’ this arrangement using DIP or DAT funding to provide immediate accommodation for non-statutory homeless households as shown below. Housing benefit should be available to meet the costs of most individuals placed in B&B.
Substance Misuse Housing Advice Workers in the London borough of Newham have a DAT funded budget (which includes DIP main grant) that enables them to purchase bed and breakfast accommodation for non-statutory homeless drug users in the borough. The workers will place applicants into bed and breakfast accommodation whilst they assess the individual’s ability to live independently and willingness to engage in treatment services. This is a highly flexible resource that ensures that drug users remain engaged with services. Floating support is provided by SHP (see the service models section (ADD LINK) of the Toolkit for more details about this service). Residents with a history of offending may be required to sign an anti-social behaviour agreement that sets out clear expectations of their behaviour whilst in the accommodation, for instance rules about visitors/use of premises.
Many councils still use hostels to accommodate statutory homeless households. These hostels are typically managed by a combination of housing management staff and security guards and are unlikely to include support workers able to offer significant one to one support to vulnerable people.
Hostels for statutory homeless people may include a mix of families, vulnerable young people and drug users. As a result of the management problems that can arise as result, and to minimise eviction/abandonment, some authorities have arranged for floating support services to provide individual support to drug users in this type of accommodation.
Many local authorities are now seeking to minimise their use of such accommodation which may mean that some becomes available for remodelling for other purposes.
The London borough of Islington has commissioned Equinox to provide support to substance misusers in bed and breakfast accommodation and the council’s hostels for statutory homeless households.
In order to ensure a continued supply of temporary housing for statutory homeless households many authorities have entered into leasing arrangements with private landlords that give them continued use of a private rented flat for a period – typically three years. Under these arrangements the private landlord gets a guaranteed rent for the period and the council (or a housing association acting on its behalf) becomes the landlord for the tenant.
Private sector leased properties used to house statutory homeless households are outside Rent Officer controls and rents are usually significantly higher than would normally be agreed for benefit purposes. Some local authorities use this type of property for both statutory and non-statutory drug users. However, the impact of such high rents on the service user’s willingness to work needs to be taken into consideration.