If you are at risk of becoming homeless after leaving care

 

This page explains the process if you are at risk of becoming homeless or find yourself homeless.

Your first point of contact should be your PA or the Emergency Duty Team (0345 600 0388) who will work through the process with you and the Housing advice team. If you live in South Hams, West Devon, Mid Devon or North Devon, housing advice will be provided by a specialist officer within their Housing Options Teams. Young Devon runs Homelessness Prevention schemes in Teignbridge, Exeter and East Devon, while Encompass run this service in Torridge.

Duty to refer

Something called a Duty to Refer (DTR) will need to be completed if you are Homeless or threatened with homelessness. This is to let the relevant district know you could be homeless within the next 56 days. Housing will then look to accommodate you in Emergency or Temporary accommodation (TA) if required and start a personal housing plan with you.

 

Priority need

If you are aged between 18 and 21yrs you have automatic priority need to be accommodated in temporary accommodation as a Care leaver. You will also have a local connection to all districts in Devon, except to Plymouth and Torbay as they are their own councils. For a homeless duty to be triggered the district council needs to assess is if you are homeless and priority need.

If you are aged 21-25yrs you do not have automatic priority need to be accommodated. This can be challenged as a result of being a care leaver or if you have other vulnerabilities. You also no longer have an automatic local connection to the whole of Devon, as the expectation is you will have built one up in an area by this age e.g. Lived there for the last 6 months out of the last 12, 3 years out of the last 5, you have education or employment there or you have immediate family you are in contact with there etc.

 

‘Local connections’ and housing rights if you live outside Devon 

Regardless of where you live, if you are a Devon Care Leaver you have an automatic ‘local connection’ to all districts of Devon if you’re under 21. So, if you’re a Devon care leaver but live in Plymouth or Torbay, you’ll still have a local connection to Devon.

In most situations, if you are under 25 and your pathway plan is provided by Devon County Council, you have a local connection to all eight local authority districts in Devon. These are:

Your personal advisor will help you make the best-informed decision about where to approach based on your wishes and preferences. For more information on Local Connection please refer to Shelter’s website.

 

Temporary Accommodation (TA)

The TA offered will usually be a B&B style general needs accommodation or Hotel. The TA will not always be within the same district you have presented to as it depends on availability on the day e.g. you may present to Teignbridge, but if they do not have any vacancies, they will provide accommodation in another district such as a hotel in North Devon.

The rules of TA are quite strict. You are not allowed to have visitors or spend any nights away without requesting this from the district first and with a valid reason. There is likely to be a curfew to return at night. You are not allowed to smoke/vape or have any drug paraphernalia in the room or on the grounds. You can lose your accommodation on the day if these rules are broken. Losing your accommodation could lead to your housing duty coming to an end with that district

 

Prevention Duty

A prevention Duty is opened when you are in accommodation and the council may help you to keep it or find other accommodation before you are homeless. You cannot have a relief and/or prevention duty open in more than one district. Both will have to be closed if approaching a different council for accommodation.

 

Intentionality and Relief Duty

When you have an open approach with a council you are in a Relief Duty, which lasts for 56 days. Within this time, the District Council approached has 56 days to decide whether you are Homeless, Eligible, priority need, have a local connection and are not intentionally homeless They also decide whether to and to provide/offer accommodation. If they decide you are homeless because of your previous actions in settled accommodation, they will end your relief duty and end the offer of accommodation. They will provide you with a ‘Minded To’ letter, letting you know they have found you intentionally homeless. At this point, you can provide information to appeal this decision and you should be given some time to find alternative accommodation. TA is not always needed, if you are aware you could be homeless within the next 56 days a DTR can be done in advance, and you can be put on a relief duty for the district to assess your homelessness without using TA.

 

Main Duty

If they believe you meet all the criteria and are not intentionally homeless, you will move to a Main duty. This duty will usually stay open until you have found accommodation. You can remain in TA until settled accommodation is found providing the rules are followed. If the council finds accommodation for you and you reject the accommodation offer for unsubstantiated reasons, they will end their duty as you are not working to relieve your homelessness. If you lose a main duty this will make you intentionally homeless when being assessed by further districts

 

Plymouth and Torbay and any other area outside Devon

If you wish to reside in Plymouth or Torbay or any other area outside Devon, you must have a local connection there. In Plymouth and Torbay is the case, The DTR process and DHC processes are the same, but accessing some supported accommodation can be trickier. This is because you are a DCC care leaver and not a Torbay or Plymouth care leaver. You’ll still be allocated a housing Officer from Plymouth or Torbay council who will submit a HUB (or something similar) to their own housing panel on your behalf. They will then see what support accommodation is available/offered. Devon Council does not have much influence or access to supported accommodation in these areas.