West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
West London DV Reciprocals Agreement Lewisham
Town Hall 15th December 2005
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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
Context

• DV a significant cause of homelessness
• People fleeing DV have the right to
  approach any borough
• Prevention is to be preferred where possible
  e.g. action against perpetrator, sanctuary
  schemes
• Best practice is for social housing tenants
  to transfer rather than be housed through HPUs
• Boroughs pushing applicants from pillar
  to post
• If accepted, social housing tenancies
  lost and periods spent in TA unnecessarily

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
Barriers to co-operation

• No Mechanism
• Suspicion
• Fear of losing out
• No habit of co-operation in this way
• Differences in practice (e.g. on
  assessment)

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
Assets for co-operation

• LOCATA (all West London boroughs except
  RBKC)
• WL Homelessness Group
• WL Allocations Group
• WL Homelessness Co-ordinator
• Borough willing to champion this area
  (Harrow)

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
DV Survey Jan to March 2005
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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
How we did it

• Sub-group of West London Homelessness Group
  drew up initial document
• Agreed by WL Homelessness Group
• Not Agreed by WL Allocations Group
• Sub-group of both groups agreed limited
  document as pilot.
• Boroughs informed staff and pilot
  launched August 1st for Council tenants only
• To be reviewed and hopefully extended
  in February

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
Principles of current agreement

• For Council tenants who are
• either living in Borough A and approach
  Borough A
• or living in Borough A and approach
  Borough B
• Cannot safely remain in Borough A
• Could live in Borough B
• Borough approached leads on case (no
  bouncing of client)
• Co-operation on assessment but done as
  management transfer, not Part VII

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
Principles of current agreement (cont)

• If accepted, can go into emergency
  accommodation, Borough B, and Borough A
  recharged
• High Priority to bid on Borough Bs list
  (if dont bid, direct offer can be made after
  reasonable period)
• When housed, Borough A offer Borough B a
  like for like property to be put onto Borough
  Bs list
• Dependant on goodwill to work, but
  allocations group can resolve differences if
  needs be

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals
Areas of extension?

• Could be extended pan London for council
  tenants

• Bring in RSLs

• Out of borough TA placements

• Access to private sector in other boroughs

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West London Homelessness DV Reciprocals