Since then, homelessness legislation has changed, and recent changes to this legislation have been the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, the Homelessness etc. Act 2003 (Scotland) and the Homelessness (Abolition of Priority Needs Test) (Scotland) Order 2012. English legislation has recently been revised in the form of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. During our engagement with stakeholders, the following departments were identified that use definitions of homelessness in an operational sense. These definitions are not used to publish data on legal homelessness or street-involved sleep. This information was gathered through conversations with government agencies about how they apply definitions of homelessness in practice. However, departments do not compile official statistics on homelessness. The law introduced legal obligations for local authorities to help people at risk of homelessness within 28 days. In addition, the housing authority should also determine whether a person is “primarily in need.” Local authorities are required by law to provide housing for certain priority groups, so an assessment is carried out to determine whether a person or household meets these requirements. Priority needs groups include: people with dependent children who have become homeless as a result of an emergency such as a flood or earthquake, and people at risk due to physical disability or mental health issues. In addition to the definitions used by devolved administrations, MHCLG and other ministries, a number of other definitions are used.
These include ETHOS (developed by FEANTSA), Core/Wider Homelessness (developed by Prof. Suzanne Fitzpatrick and Prof. Glen Bramley of Heriot Watt University in collaboration with Crisis) and the Framework of Global Homelessness (proposed by Prof. Volker Busch-Geertsema, Prof. Dennis Culhane and Prof. Suzanne Fitzpatrick of the Institute of Global Homelessness IGH). Our research concluded that if a broad definition of homelessness could be created, developing a harmonized definition that ministries and devolved governments could include in their statistics is a major challenge. All four countries collect information on sleep deprivation, homeless households, and temporary housing, but differences in data collection methods and decentralized legislation are significant barriers to creating a unified definition of homelessness. In addition, administrative data systems for collecting information on homelessness are country-specific, and there would be significant costs to change these processes in the near future. Any consideration of better comparability of UK homelessness statistics should be seen in the light of each country`s obligation to meet the needs of its direct data users. In Northern Ireland, the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1988 imposed an obligation on the Housing Executive to provide housing to persons who are homeless or at risk of homelessness within the next 28 days and defined “priority need”. The introduction of the Housing Ordinance 2003 (NI) sought to amend the definition of homelessness and the intentional homelessness provisions and introduced an additional obligation for the Housing Executive to assess an applicant`s eligibility for housing allowance.
The Housing (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Act 2010 introduced a statutory right to apply for review of any decision concerning a person`s eligibility for assistance and the adequacy of the housing offered. The amended law also required the housing authority to formulate and publish a “homelessness strategy” every five years. Another area of concern is the public`s perception of who the homeless population is and why it has become homeless. The study found a strong public opinion that homeless people are mostly older white men who sleep poorly and that their homelessness is caused by poor lifestyle choices and addictions. This report examines the feasibility of harmonising UK definitions of homelessness and assesses methods for users to better understand the comparability of UK homelessness statistics. Perhaps the first question to be answered in a plan to end homelessness is what exactly do we mean by “end”? How to define this objective and explain its components? For six months in 2017, we advised people experiencing homelessness and people working in the sector in England, Scotland and Wales. Our goal was to agree on a definition to be used in this plan. This chapter explains why a definition is important, its usefulness and the factors considered when making decisions.
It then explains the five elements of the definition. The differences in legal definitions between the four countries are important because legislation forms the basis for how data is collected and what is collected. In Scotland, for example (where there is no “core need”), everyone has the same right to housing and will therefore turn to local authorities regardless of the circumstances. In the other three countries, people who meet their “priority need” criteria are less likely to cooperate with local authorities. Since the new Welsh legislation in 2014 and the English legislation in 2017, the assessment of priority needs now takes place later in the application process for homelessness assistance, which may affect cooperation with local authorities. Creating a harmonised definition of homelessness in the UK for UK official statistics presents a number of important challenges. Different countries have their own definitions of homelessness as defined in the law. Although differences in devolved legislation are often overcome by harmonisation as opposed to standardisation, homelessness legislation in the UK has obvious differences that limit the comparability of data collection methods. Data collection systems have been developed independently and collect information in different forms; such as aggregated and case-level datasets, which also influence UK countries` homelessness statistics. To create a definition that would be workable for all four nations, the definition would have to include the different laws and data collection methods used in the UK.
For those interested in comparing homelessness statistics across the UK, it`s important to know what statistics you can and can`t compare. Preventing homelessness could improve health and save money. Therefore, it is important that the definition and the way it is communicated inspire the public to support the elimination of homelessness. This means striving for a definition that does not evoke fatalism and cynicism about homelessness. It also means avoiding a simplistic or narrow presentation of the problem that could reinforce false stereotypes. The Institute for Global Homelessness`s Global Homelessness Framework draws on ETHOS, developing country contexts, and recent criticisms of ETHOS. The basic concept at the heart of the definition is homelessness as “lack of access to adequate minimum housing”, and the framework has three broad categories; Homeless people, people living in emergency shelters and people living in extremely inadequate and dangerous shelters. In Northern Ireland, NIHE, in partnership with the Welcome Organisation, conducts an annual street census (PDF, 938KB) in Belfast and Newry. The 2018 census was also extended to Derry/Londonderry.
Consulting with their local offices and police, NIHE found that sleeping on the streets outside their major cities was not a major problem, so the number of people sleeping rough was concentrated in large urban areas such as Belfast.
