Purbeck District Council: Housing and Homelessness

Mr. Gomes says homelessness is big problem in the UK.

Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Salem-News.com William Nicholas Gomes, has addressed the Purbeck District Council with a number of questons about residents who are struggling to maintain housing. Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on England's south coast.

Mr. Gomes asks a number of important questions about the racial and cultural breakdown of those who are struggling.

His inquiries include race, family size, number accepted as statutory homeless, and other questions such as how many people were successfully prosecuted for housing benefit fraud, and how many people have been accommodated following the statutory duty under the housing act who have been declared themselves as homeless and sissified the homelessness assessment process.

Mr. Gomes says homelessness is big problem in the UK. This official information from the local Purbeck Council is very in line with questions people have been asking.

FOI 1775 Gomes – Purbeck District Council

1. How many people are under Council’s Housing waiting list at present?

   There are currently 2202 households on the waiting list.

   Would you please specify the age group, gender and the number of minorities, BME community who are on the Council’s waiting list?

   Breakdown of Total number of households on waiting list by age group:

   Age      Under 25   25-29   30-39   40-49   50-54   55-59   60-64   65+

   Number    168        210       415      427      203      190      173    779

   Breakdown of Total number of households on waiting list by gender:

   Gender   Female    Male   Not stated

   Number     168      634        558

   Breakdown of Total number of households on waiting list by ethnicity:

   Ethnicity                                Number of households

   Arab                                                    1

   Asian or Asian British - Indian                2

   Asian or Asian British - Other                 5

   Black or Black British - African              12

   Chinese                                                2

   Gypsy or Traveller                                11

   Mixed - other                                        9

   Mixed - White and Asian                         5

   Mixed - White and Black African              6

   Mixed - White and Black Carribbean        5

   White British                                     1711

   Not stated/ left blank                            17

   Left Blank                                           363

   Other                                                     5

   White - European                                    1

   White - Irish                                           7

   White - other                                        40

2. Would you please specify how many people have applied for one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedrooms, four bedrooms, five bedrooms in the year 2012-2013?

   Bedroom    1 Bed    2 Bed     3 Bed    4 Bed    4-5 Bed    4-6 Bed

   Number       837      435        189        47           4             1

3. Please provide number of how many people you have accommodated following the statutory duty under housing act who have been declared themselves as homeless and sissified the homelessness assessment process. Please give number by year starting from January 2012 to December 2013. Please also specify their gender, age group and if possible ethnic identity.
   

   Number accepted as statutory homeless

   January 2012 – December 2012

   Total number accepted as statutory homeless was 29 households.

   Gender    Number

   Female      22

   Male         7

   Age            Under 25          25-29          30-39          40-49          50-59          60-63

   Number            4                  5                   8                7                 3                2

   White British                              15

   White Other                                 1

   Not stated                                  13

   January 2013 – December 2013

   Total Number accepted as statutory homeless was 22 households.

   Gender                Number

   Female                    17

   Male                         5

   Age         Under 25         25-29         30-39         40-49         50-59

   Number         4                 3                 8               5                 2

   White British            10

   White Other               1

   Not stated                11

4. Please provide the number of people who are in current council waiting list who are homeless.

   There are currently 21 households accepted as statutory homeless on the waiting list.

5. Please share what is the council policy to address homelessness, and how council is allocating budget for that

   Applicants accepted as statutory homeless by Purbeck District Council are put in the emergency band six months after being accepted as homeless for a time limited period of three months. The Council sets aside some of its revenue budget to cover expenditure of bed and breakfast costs, rent deposit and rent in advance and spend to save.

6. Please share the total number of council house and please specify the type of the house and number and area and how many are current empty.

   This information is not held by Purbeck District Council as the Council does not have any housing stock, having transferred it in 2004 to:
   
   Synergy Purbeck
   Link House
   West Street
   Poole
   Dorset
   BH15 1LD
   01202 308600
   info@synergyhousing.co.uk

   Please note that housing associations are not currently subject to the FOIA.

7. Please provide how much council had spent yearly since January 2012 to December 2013, to build new council house/flat.

   Nil – please see the response to question 6 above.

8. According to the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) all Local Authorities must have a Homelessness Strategy in place What are the homelessness strategy of the Council council. Please share the yearly the yearly of starting from January 2012 to December 2013.

   The legislation also required local authorities to publish a new homelessness strategy based on the results of a further homelessness review within 5 years. Rather than produce six individual strategies in Dorset, a joint strategy has been produced by the housing authorities in the Dorset County area. As we share many of the issues identified, joint working enables us to achieve more and avoid duplication. The housing authorities are Christchurch, East Dorset, North Dorset, West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland, and Purbeck.

   Section 21 of the FOIA provides that when the information you have requested is publicly accessible by other means, we can provide a link to it, as shown below.

   Information How/Where Accessible Homelessness Strategy http://www.dorsetforyou.com/395734

   Please note that the Homelessness Strategy is currently being reviewed.

9. Under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) Council has certain responsibilities towards people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Would you please provide number, age,gender to whom you provided service following the specific law.

   Please note that this question has been answered in question 3.

10. How long you take to process housing benefit claim. How many housing benefit claim has been process by the council since January 2012 to December 2013. Please provide number of each year.

    New claims processed between January 2012 and April 2012 was 313 - the average processing time was 22.99 days. New claims processed between April 2012 and April 2013 was 1005 - the average processing time was 30.13 days. New claims processed between April 2013 and December 2013 was 481 - the average processing time was 22.70 days.

    Change of circumstances between January 2012 and April 2012 was 4684 - the average processing time was 8.06 days. Change of circumstances between April 2012 and April 2013 was 13946 - the average processing time was 9.74 days. Change of circumstances between April 2013 and December 2013 was 4802 - the average processing time was 9.01 days.

11. How much council had spent to pay the employee who are working on homeless issues in council.Please give yearly details starting from January 2012 to December 2013.
    
    2012 - £213,750 including employee oncosts.
    
    2013 - £214,119 including employee oncosts.
12. How many people were successfully prosecuted for housing benefit fraud during year 2012 and 2013.

    There were six.

13. Did council appointed any third party to find out or tackle benefit fraud. If yes, Who is the company and how much council has paid them for the service.

    No.

Special thanks to : https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/purbeck_district_council_housing#incoming-474112

http://williamnicholasgomes.com/2014/01/23/purbeck-district-council-housing-and-homelessness/