Analysis of Housing Council Services for Homeless People in the UK

This report provides an overview of the services offered by the UK Housing Council to legally homeless individuals. It begins with an introduction to the council's role and covers various aspects of its operations, including the definition of homelessness according to UK law and the process for applying for housing assistance. The report details the council's priority list, which determines the order in which housing is allocated, and the concept of intentionally homeless individuals who may not be eligible for assistance. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of local connections for applicants. The report then explores housing associations and housing co-operatives, highlighting their roles in providing social housing and their operational differences. It concludes by summarizing the key points regarding the council's services, priority list, and the structures of housing associations and co-operatives. The report references several academic sources to support its findings.

HOUSING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1 Services provided by council to legally homeless individuals.................................................1
2 Housing Association & Housing Co-operatives......................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Housing council is housing services provided by government and local authorities to the
homeless & people who need the shelter. This report includes services provided by housing
council to the legally homeless people which further mentions priority list, intentionally
homeless & local connection. Moreover, this report describes housing association & housing
cooperatives.
1 Services provided by council to legally homeless individuals
According to the law stated by government of Unite Kingdom, Homeless individuals are
people who does not have a house to stay on their own names and individuals who has house but
that is not appropriate to live. Government of UK and housing council establishes various
policies for the homeless individuals. People are becoming homeless due to disaster such as fire
& flooding, domestic violence & harassment. If a person becomes homeless than he can ask
council of government of UK for the help within the next 8 weeks from the day, he becomes
homeless. It is the duty of the housing council to help the homeless individuals either by
providing them shelter or by giving them advice. Homeless individual have to apply to the
council of UK for the shelter and the council provide house according to the availability, demand
for the social housing and priority list (Reeves, 2016).
Priority List- Council give priority to the homeless in its priority list if it is legally proved
that the individual is homeless. Shelter is provided to the individuals after providing house to the
other people in the priority list. This priority list is decided by the council and each council has
its own priority list. Priority is given to the citizens in providing home by council of UK, which
is given below-
 Priority to homeless individuals
 To poor citizens of the country
 To military people
 Priority for urgent housing need
 Priority to the individual who want to live in a particular area
 General housing needs (Balchin and Rhoden, 2019)
Intentionally Homeless- Intentionally homeless is when there is no legal proof that the person is
homeless & when the individual is having a house after that he does not stay in that. Housing
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council does not provide house to the individual who hasn't proven homeless in the eyes of law.
Housing council does not consider a person homeless in the following case-
 If a person intentionally does something due to which he loses his house. For Example- If
the person does not pay rent and due to that he has leave that house.
 Eliminated from the society due to anti-social behavior.
 If person already has a home & in the living condition
In the following case the individual will not be treated as homeless and council does not provide
him housing services (Leviten-Reid and Campbell, 2016).
Different places the council can offer- Council provide housing services to the different
areas and in the different ways. Housing council does not provide & build houses in the posh
area they provide social housing to the individuals by building the house in the area where low
cost housing is available. Housing council of UK provide social housing at various places such
as build apartment & give to the tenant on the rent, build house like duplex on a land and transfer
the ownership of that houses to the individuals by selling them, at the lower rate & they also
transfer ownership of flats (Gibb, 2016).
Local Connections- According to council of UK, Connections are must require for getting
house from the housing board. Homeless individuals can apply to the council of local area
belongs to them and if they are not connected to the local area then council may suggest them to
apply in other local area in which they have local connections and council of that area also check
the local connection than proceeds further & Council finds that whether the individual is
connected to the local area or not. Local connection is when the individual is working that
particular area or his close relatives such as parents, children, brother & sister are residing in that
area. There is a local connection among the individual and the council if the individual reside in
that area at least for 3 years in last 5 years. Council also finds local connection in some special
cases such as when individual is having some health problem and for that he has to reside in that
particular area or having social connections with that particular area he want to live in (McKee,
Muir and Moore, 2017).
2 Housing Association & Housing Co-operatives
Housing Association- Housing associations of United Kingdom provides social housing
services to the people of the county who needs shelter. Housing association is a private
organization operate its business with the motive of providing shelters at low cost to the
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homeless citizens of UK and not the profit maximization. Profits earned by this organization is
used for financing for new house & for maintenance existing houses. It is a nonprofit
organization & independent organization but it is regulated & controlled by state and local
authority. Housing association provides services to the homeless, young people, disabled & ex-
offenders (Jacobs and Manzi, 2019).
Housing Co-operatives- Housing Co-operative is housing company which owns residential
buildings & provide residence to citizen of UK at a lower cost. This companies are owned &
operated by individuals without the motive profit maximization. Housing Co-operative of United
Kingdom is membership based housing company. Any individual can become member of the
company by purchasing shares of co-operative with that rights are given to the member's they
can own one housing unit. All the funding in this company comes from its members (Local
connections. 2018).
CONCLUSION
This report outlined services provided to homeless citizens of the country by housing
council and priority list, local connections & intentionally homeless. Further, this report
summarises housing association & housing co-operatives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Reeves, P., 2016. Introduction to Social Housing. Routledge.
Balchin, P. and Rhoden, M., 2019. Housing policy: an introduction. Routledge.
Leviten-Reid, C. and Campbell, R., 2016. Volunteer roles and the benefits of volunteering: An
examination of nonprofit housing cooperatives. Community Development. 47(4). pp.464-
480.
Jacobs, K. and Manzi, T., 2019. Conceptualising ‘financialisation’: governance, organisational
behaviour and social interaction in UK housing. International Journal of Housing Policy.
pp.1-19.
McKee, K., Muir, J. and Moore, T., 2017. Housing policy in the UK: The importance of spatial
nuance. Housing Studies. 32(1). pp.60-72.
Gibb, K., 2016. Housing Finance in the UK: an Introduction. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
King, D. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C., 2019. ADAPTING TO FLOODS IN SOCIAL HOUSING
IN THE UK. Flood Risk Management: Global Case Studies of Governance, Policy and
Communities. p.141.
Online
Local connections, 2018. [Online]. Available yhrough:
<https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/rules/local_connection>
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