‘Homeless must not be labelled’
ACOUNCIL has been urged to stop categorising people as “intentionally homeless” – because of its “devastating” effect on families.
A total of 880 individuals or families affected by homelessness sought help from the Vale of Glamorgan Council in 2016-17.
But the council only accepted that 129 had lost their homes through no fault of their own – a category known as “unintentionally homeless”.
A leading charity said categorising a person or family as “intentionally homeless” could have a damaging effect, particularly on families fleeing domestic violence or leaving unhealthy accommodation.
Jennie Bibbings, campaigns manager for Shelter Cyrmu, said: “Homelessness services in Wales have been really struggling with high demand in the last few years so it’s great to see that the Vale of Glamorgan has managed to reduce intentional homelessness.
“There’s a lot of evidence that intentional homelessness decisions can have a devastating effect on people and particularly on children. The original point of the law was to ensure that people didn’t recklessly give up their homes in the hope of being allocated a better one.
“But in practice it’s much more likely that intentionality hits vulnerable people who were only doing what they felt they needed to in order to survive.”
The number of homelessness presentations in the Vale of Glamorgan appears to have increased significantly in two years. In 201415 there were just 258 cases but the council says this is down to the way the data was recorded.
A council spokesman said the authority did not class any household with children as intentionally homeless in 2016-17 and added it supported a Welsh Government target of ending “intentionality” for households with children by 2019.
“Hopefully Vale of Glamorgan will be planning now to meet that target, which will reduce intentionality decisions even further,” Ms Bibbings added.
In 2014-15 the council accepted 235 of 258 homelessness presentations as “unintentional”, figures in a Local Housing Market Assessment say.
The figures jump suddenly in 2015-16 when there were 676 homelessness presentations – just 74 of them were accepted as “unintentional”.
The council says figures before and after April 2015 cannot be fairly compared due to changes in the way the data is recorded.
Before April 2015 the figures represented households whose cases had been resolved.
Now authorities must record figures on all households that report as homeless or threatened with homelessness.
The figure for 2016-17 is further increased as people can now register with the council if they are threatened with homelessness in the next 56 days when previously it was 28, according to a council spokesman.
Councillor Andrew Parker, the Vale council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “The Vale of Glamorgan Council fully supports the goal of ending ‘intentionality’ for households with children by 2019.
“In line with this the council would only ever consider this option as a very last resort.
“Indeed, during 2016-17 the council did not class any household with children as intentionally homeless. Instead we worked with these families to identify solutions.”