Homelessness Reduction Act

The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA)

The HRA is the most radical change to homelessness legislation in England for over forty years.

What will the Homelessness Reduction Act try to do?

1. Improve advice and information available about homelessness and the prevention of homelessness
2. Extend the assessment period where someone is ‘threatened with homelessness’ from 28 days to 56 days
3. Introduce new duties to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible people, regardless of priority need, intentionality and local connection
4. Introduce assessments and personalised housing plans , setting out the actions housing authorities and individuals will take to secure accommodation
5. Encourage public bodies to work together to prevent and relieve homelessness through a duty to refer.

This week the #HomelessnessReductionAct comes into force which will transform the way councils and public services in every part of the country address homelessness – intervening earlier to support those at risk of losing their homes pic.twitter.com/ra9yqORIiS

— Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt (@mhclg) April 4, 2018

NOAH believe that ensuring the Act is fully effective requires service transformation and new ways of working at a time when local authorities are under real pressure. To ensure the new duties have a real impact, we are:

• Working in partnership with Local Authorities to support them to implement the HRA
• Working more broadly with Local Authorities and stakeholders to share our learnings and expertise
• Challenging cases where legal duties are being flouted or wilfully misinterpreted
• Researching and monitoring the impact of the HRA on our local area

Rough Sleeping Count Numbers

The statistics below are based on counts and estimates carried out by Local Authorities in England, providing a snapshot figure of the number of people sleeping rough on any one night.

2016 – 2017

2015 – 2016