As with the assessment obligation, the obligation to draw up a personalised housing plan may coincide with other tasks of local authorities. After the assessment, a customized housing plan should be created. [4] The Board should discuss each plan with you and make sure you understand what they are going to do and what steps you yourself have agreed to. If you don`t understand something in your plan or think you can`t do something in the plan, be sure to communicate it to the board. If you are receiving help from social services, you may already have a care and support plan, and the board should work with social services to make sure the two plans are linked. When you contact us for homelessness assistance, we are required by law to conduct an assessment of your situation and needs, as well as any help you may need to prevent you from becoming homeless in the future. We will work with you to create a personalized housing plan to meet this commitment. Personalized housing plans are issued as part of prevention and assistance tasks. The individualized housing plan includes reasonable steps you and we will take to prevent or mitigate your homelessness.
It will include mandatory and recommended steps that may be related to your larger situation. For example, some of the measures in your personalized housing plan may include working with a money and debt management advisor if you are experiencing financial difficulties and rent arrears. A reference will be made to the consultant to help you solve your problems and you will have to cooperate fully in efforts to negotiate a favorable outcome for you. A review of your customized housing plan will be conducted periodically by your designated Housing Case Manager to review progress and/or update the plan as required. We may send you notice terminating the prevention or release obligation if we have determined that you have intentionally and unreasonably refused to cooperate with the mandatory measures and steps set out in your individualized housing plan. Make every effort to obtain the applicant`s consent to their individualized housing plans If your circumstances change, such as if you become homeless or your health needs change, your personal housing plan needs to be reviewed. Be sure to notify the Board of any changes in your situation so that they can discuss the plan with you again, agree on new measures or supplement existing ones. It was decided that the applicant was intentionally homeless and therefore no primary housing obligations were due. Together, these three steps form a personalized housing plan (PHP).
[3] Reasonable measures may include mediation with the person`s current landlord, assistance with the application for social housing, or mediation with private landlords. If the applicant has to abandon the care obligation, the local authority must take into account his or her road map when drawing up the personal housing plan and involve his or her personal adviser in the preparation of the personal housing plan if the young person agrees. [19] Research shows that interventions to prevent homelessness are more cost-effective than treating problems after a person is already homeless. The longer a person is homeless, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to relocate. Rapid resettlement helps people get out of shelters or on the streets to stable shelters as quickly as possible. It also connects people with community support resources that help them maintain their homes. The success of this strategy is noted in this example from a research report (PDF | 810 KB): Only 10% of families who left the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development`s demonstration sites returned to homelessness. Customized housing plans must be registered in writing and a copy must be given to the applicant. [22] The assessment and the personalised accommodation plan should feed into all measures taken under the derogation obligation. The code requires housing authorities to work with probation agencies (which must “provide direct assistance to help people find housing”), as well as prisons and non-profit sector organisations, to ensure their clients have access to suitable housing. [21] The proposed work should be documented in the plan. The code recommends that housing authorities and children`s services work together prior to release to ensure that youth aged 16 to 17 and people aged 18 to 24 who leave care without an existing housing plan.
[20] There is new information or a change in circumstances, or the local authority determines that the information on which the plan is based is inaccurate. Measures must be practical and realistic,[11] so plans that limit housing search to prohibitive areas or rely on services not available in the district are unlikely to be reasonable. [12] The Code notes that appropriate measures vary from one local authority to another. [13] Housing and housing programs can help address the root causes of homelessness through a range of basic recovery services, including mental and substance use treatment, employment and general services. Types of housing and housing programs include: In the prevention phase, a plan has been developed and the applicant becomes homeless Once a personal housing plan has been created, you and the board must take all the steps agreed upon on the plan. If a local authority is convinced that a person is eligible, homeless or at risk of becoming eligible, it must draw up a personalised housing plan based on an assessment of their needs. The plan should include measures to prevent or mitigate the applicant`s homelessness. The plan should make it clear what happens next. As part of the personalized plan, the person may be asked to find housing on their own. The local authority may determine that the person has not cooperated if it does not take appropriate action set out in the plan. This may allow the local authority to end the obligation to prevent prematurely.
You need to make sure you go to all the appointments that are set for you and take all the steps you have agreed to for the plan. The authority responsible for preparing the PHP is usually the housing authority to which the applicant applies.
