Where are They Going to Live?
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300205 |
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
80
Where
are
They
Going
to
Live?
Len
Cheston,
Senior
Probation
Officer
with
Inner
London
Probation
Service’s
Partnership
Support
Unit,
examines
the
changes
taking
place
in
the
housing
world
and
considers
the
implications
for
probation
workers
and
service
users.
ublished
in
June
1995,
the
White
JL
Paper
Our
Future
Homes
(Cm
2901 )
summarises
the
range
of
existing
initiatives,
particularly
the
right
to
buy
for
housing
association
tenants.
A
further
major
policy
plank
is
the
Government’s
continuing
quest
to
get
local
authorities
out
of
the
management
and
ownership
of
its
own
housing
stock.
Tli,~ Tlireat to the Service
The
main
threat
to
Probation
Service
clients
is
the
Government’s
proposals
to
reform
the Homeless
PersonsAct
1985.
The
statement:
’Allocation
schemes
should
reflect
the
underlying
values
of
our
society’
sums
up
the
direction
of
its
thinking.
Two
key
areas
are
particularly
worth
examining:
o
the
requirement
to
eventually
house
all
unintentionally
homeless
people
in
priority
need
in
permanent
housing;
0
the
introduction
of
common
housing
registers.
The
newly
published
Housing
Bill
starts
to
tackle
these
issues.
However,
on
the
issue
of
the
right
to
permanent
housing,
the
House
of
Lords
in
its
ruling
in
London
Borough
of Brent,
ex parte
Awua
has
done
much
of
the
Government’s
work,
’rendering
any
new
homelessness
law
change
unnecessary’’.
If
someone
is
unintentionally
homeless
and
a
priority
need,
the
local
authority
can
discharge
its
responsibility
by
putting
the
person/family
into
temporary
accommodation.
Housing
Registers
The
introduction
of
common
housing
registers
is
already
established
practice
in
many
housing
areas.
It
is
the
allocation
of
this
housing
that
is
the
key
consideration.
A
recent
Department
of
the
Environment
consultation
paper
Allocation
of
Housing
Accommodation
by
Local
Authorities
pursues
this
theme.
The
paper
sounds
very
reasonable
but
it
starts
to
define
the
groups
who
will
be
excluded
from
registration,
in
particular
asylum
seekers
and
those
failing
the
habitual
residency
test,
whilst
also
saying
that
local
authorities
should
make
available
’move-on’
accommodation
for
’welfare’
groups.
The
paper
debates
who
should
have
the
power
on
defining
eligibility
to
the
waiting
list,
ie
central
Government
or
the
local
authority.
From
this
paper
it
can
be
assumed
that
time
spent
on
the
waiting
list
could
be
a
big
factor
in
determining
an
individuals
access
to
housing,
not
their
housing
need.
For
Probation
clients,
it
will
mean
access
to
public
housing
will
be
far
more
difficult.
’Unpopular’
client
groups such
as
young
single
mothers,
mentally
ill
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