Homelessness relocation

The request was successful.

Dear Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,

I would like to know your policy on placing homeless households in
accomodation outside of Kensington and Chelsea to discharge your statutory duty?

Also how many homeless people have you re-located outside of
Kensington and Chelsea in the past 12 months?

Yours faithfully,

Luke Sheldon

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Dear Mr. Sheldon

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REF: 2012-1003

 

I am writing to confirm that we received your information request on 30
October 2012. For your information and future communications your request
has been allocated the reference number FOI2012-1003. Please quote this
reference in any future correspondence.

 

We will consider your request and respond in accordance with the
requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Our duty is to
respond promptly or at least within 20 working days.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Robin Yu

Information Protection Assistant

Information Governance Team

Information Systems Division (ISD)

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

Tel: 020 7938 8226

 

Web: [1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk

 

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Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Dear Mr. Sheldon,

 

Thank you for your request.

 

I’ve liaised with Housing and they’ve asked if you could clarify whether
your request is about placing households into temporary accommodation
outside of the borough, or ending our duty to duty accepted households
into the private rented sector, or into social housing?

 

Please contact me if require any assistance.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Robin Yu

Information Protection Assistant

Information Governance Team

Information Systems Division (ISD)

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

Tel: 020 7938 8226

 

Web: [1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk

 

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Dear Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,

Thanks for asking for clarification. The FOI was asking on cases and policy about ending your duty to duty accepted households by locating them outside the borough. Could I please have the policy and numbers (specified in the FOI) for housing outside of the borough in both social and private sectors to end your duty to duty accepted households; and could the numbers be separated to distinguish between being housed into social or private housing outside the borough, if at all possible?

Yours faithfully,

Luke Sheldon

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

3 Attachments

Dear Mr. Sheldon

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REF: 2012-1003

 

I am responding to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
which we received on 30 October 2012, for information held by the Council.
You requested:

 

I would like to know your policy on placing homeless households in
accommodation outside of Kensington and Chelsea to discharge your
statutory duty?

    

Also how many homeless people have you re-located outside of Kensington
and Chelsea in the past 12 months?

 

We do not have a policy about ending our duty to duty accepted households
by locating them in any particular area.

 

When the Council has reached a decision to accept a duty under Section
193(2) of the Housing Act 1996, Part VII we are agreeing to arrange, or
continue to arrange, accommodation until a suitable offer of housing can
be made or our duty under this section is otherwise discharged.

 

The details of the duty accepted household are placed on the Common
Housing Register, and they are assessed for long-term housing with the
Council (TMO) or a housing trust.  Each household placed on the register
is assessed using a “points” scheme as set out in the Council’s Allocation
Policy.

 

The Council lets most of its accommodation through a Choice Based Lettings
Scheme called Home Connections. This has been developed to allow those
registered with the Council to have more say in where they wish to live. 
Each week a number of properties are advertised through Home Connections
on the Council’s website.  

 

In line with the Allocations Scheme, the Council can make direct offers of
social housing to two groups of applicants who have a high priority for
re-housing, statutory homeless households placed in temporary
accommodation are one of these priority groups. If a duty accepted
household does not participate in Choice Based Lettings, or refuses a
suitable offer of housing, the Council may decide that it has fulfilled
its duty to them.   If they are living in temporary accommodation, they
will be required to leave and make their own arrangements.

 

Although households may have been accepted as part of the Council’s duty
under the Housing Act, there is a chronic shortage of properties available
to us. This coupled with the large number of applications we receive for
housing, means that the demand by far outstrips the supply of properties
that is available to us. In reality it may be many years before duty
accepted households are re-housed into long-term accommodation and means
that  they are likely to spend a very long time in temporary
accommodation. 

 

Between October 2011 and September 2012, the Council let a total of 561
social housing units, of which 93 were located outside the borough. 318
social lettings were to duty accepted households, and 73 of these were
outside of the borough during the same period.  4 lettings were made to
duty accepted households via the Council’s Private Rented  Access Scheme,
these were all outside of the borough.

 

I have attached the Council’s factsheets on its Allocations and Private
Rented Access Schemes, and one about Homelessness.

 

Complaints

 

I trust this has satisfied your request.  Should you be unhappy with the
handling of your request, the Council has an internal complaints process
for handling FOIA complaints. Complaints are reviewed by the Chief
Solicitor and Monitoring Officer or her nominee. A form is available from
our website to lodge your complaint
[1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/councilanddemocra...
Please contact us if you do not have website access and we can provide you
with a copy of the form. Following this review, should you still be
unhappy with how your information request has been handled, you have a
further right to appeal to the Information Commissioner who is responsible
for ensuring compliance with FOIA.  

 

Yours sincerely

 

Robin Yu

Information Protection Assistant

Information Governance Team

Information Systems Division (ISD)

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

Tel: 020 7938 8226

 

Web: [2]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk

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References

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2. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/