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Complex Safeguarding Wales

Housing policy and practice guidance

Many people do not know they are eligible for legal help with housing.

Housing (Wales) Act 2014

According to the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, homelessness goes beyond having no suitable accommodation and sleeping rough on the streets. It includes people who are threatened with homelessness as well as those who:

  • have no available accommodation but maybe staying with a friend, ‘sofa surfing’ or using a night shelter
  • have accommodation but they cannot secure entry to it – this may be due to squatters, illegal eviction or where people are living in a ‘movable structure’ such as a caravan or boat, they have nowhere to place it
  • have accommodation but they cannot reside there – this may be due to an illness or disability, domestic abuse or because the accommodation is not of a good enough standard to live in

The Act extends and strengthens local authority responses to homelessness through early intervention, prevention and support. It states that local authorities must:

  • prevent homelessness and provide prevention services to anyone at risk of losing their home within 56 days
  • ensure the quality of homes they provide with standards for rent and service charges
  • provide suitable places to live whether in social housing or privately rented accommodation
  • provide suitable sites for Gypsies and Travellers, if a need has been identified

Section 55

Young people and adultsare deemed to be homeless if they ‘cannot secure entry’ to their accommodation and:

“a person is not to be treated as having accommodation unless it is accommodation which it would be reasonable for the person to continue to occupy.”

This means that where accommodation has been ‘cuckooed’ or taken over by drug dealers, they have the right to help and support with their housing needs.

Section 70

Some young people can get urgent help with their housing needs:

  • 16 to 17 year olds who are unable to return to their parent or carers home
  • 18 to 20 year olds who are at risk or are being controlled by another person, including sexual or financial exploitation
  • over 21s who are vulnerable due to a special reason, such as having been the victim of violence or abuse, and where this risk would continue if they were returned home

Housing practitioners must exercise their professional curiosity as young people may be criminally exploited by friends or relatives. It should also be noted that the local authority cannot force the young person to return to the parent or carer’s home.

Young people up to the age of 20 who have been looked after, accommodated, or fostered until the age of 18 should receive urgent housing support and those who have been remanded to youth detention accommodation, or custody and those who have served a custodial sentence.

To access help with housing or homelessness, there must be a local connection to the area.

Section 81

The person applying must have at least one of the following:

  • live in the area
  • have lived there in the past
  • work in the area
  • have family living in the area
  • have a connection to the area because of special circumstances

Housing practitioners must consider the young person’s safety and whether they are requesting out-of-area housing to escape criminal exploitation.

Housing First for Youth

Housing First for Youth is aimed at young people aged between 16 and 25 with multiple complex issues, such as mental health issues and/or substance misuse issues and who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. These young people may have negative experiences of service provision.

Cymorth Cymru – the representative body for homelessness, housing and support in Wales – have adapted the key principles of Housing First for young people. These principles are:

1. Young people have the right to a home

Young people should have housing from where they can access services, education and employment opportunities. They will have the choice to live alone, in shared accommodation, or near their family and friends.

2. Housing and support are separated

Support will follow the young person regardless of the accommodation they choose and the status of their tenancy.

3. Flexible support

Flexible support should be provided for as long as the young person wants it by specialists with expertise in working with young people. The support should change in light of the young person’s choices and priorities.

4. Support with service transitions

Service providers must work with the young person to determine whether support with transitions are needed (e.g. from young person to adult services). Transitions between services should be carried out smoothly and sensitively.

5. Young people have choice and control over the way they engage with services

Young people are expected to engage with services, but the onus must fall on the provider to find the right way of engaging.

6. The service is based on the young person’s strengths, goals and aspirations

7. Harm reduction and safeguarding approaches

If a young person is showing behaviours that could be harmful to their health, mental health and well-being, services will adopt a harm reduction approach.

If someone is at serious risk of harming themselves or others, the agencies will take a safeguarding approach.

8. Strengths-based, psychologically informed, trauma-informed, gender-informed services

The service must be delivered in a strengths-based, psychologically informed, trauma-informed, gender-informed way that is sensitive and aware of protected characteristics.

9. Voices of young people

Service providers will take time to understand the young person’s interests, needs and interpretation of community, so they can support the client to build links with communities of interest as well as communities of place.

10. Breadth of service provision

Young people should be offered a meaningful range of services for when they are ready to engage with them.