Housing Options in North Wiltshire

Generally, housing options available to single homeless adults claiming benefits or on low incomes are very limited in North Wiltshire.

Statutory Duties

Under current Homelessness legislation the local housing authority (Wiltshire District Council) is required to investigate cases of homelessness and make decisions on the following issues, before it can accept a duty to provide accommodation for a homeless applicant :-

• Households with dependent children or someone who is pregnant
• Anyone who is vulnerable as a result of old age, mental health problems, physical disability or illness
• Anyone who has become homeless in an emergency

The Homelessness Act 2002 added the following groups to the priority categories:-

• 16 and 17 year olds (unless the responsibility of Social Services
• Care leavers aged 18 to 21
• Anyone who is vulnerable as a result of fleeing violence, having served in the Armed Forces, having served a prison sentence or having been in Care.

Please note that it is for the local authority-investigating officer to decide on whether or not an applicant fits any of these categories, the threshold of vulnerability varies from organisation to organisation and is one of the most contentious issues.

As a result of the legislation, most homeless adults without dependent children are assessed as "not having priority need" even if they satisfy all the other criteria.

North Wiltshire

In the first two quarters of 2005/2006, North Wiltshire District Council received 45 applications under the Homeless Persons legislation from families with children and accepted a duty to provide accommodation for 41.

During the same period, they received applications from 54 adults without dependent children and accepted a duty to re-house only 29.

Homeless people are entitled to register on the general housing waiting list which allocates points to each case according to need and time spent in the area.

However, Westlea Housing Association, the main social housing provider, has only 644
1-bedroom units in the area and 885 on the waiting list for this category. In 2004/2005 only 78 general 1-bedroom vacancies occurred, which means that for most single homeless applicants there will be no quick solution.

In North Wiltshire, the Citizen's Advice Bureau is currently funded to provide housing advice by the local housing authority. From April to September 2005, they received 211 housing enquiries from single people, some of whom were homeless or threatened with homelessness, but unfortunately information about outcomes is not readily available.

Having sought advice, our experience shows that many do not go on to register as homeless with the local authority since they believe they have no case.

The Private Sector

Private accommodation in North Wiltshire is expensive and generally landlords are reluctant to accept Housing Benefit claimants as tenants.

Most of the homeless people who approach the centre do not have funds to either pay rent in advance or to pay a deposit. The local authority has a Rent Deposit Scheme to assist homeless people to move into private accommodation, but this is only available to applicants who are in "priority need".

Direct Access Hostels / Night Shelters

Unity House opened as referral based hostel accommodation in Chippenham in September 2009. However, the 15 bed accomodation is always full with a waiting list from the entire of Wiltshire. The other nearest hostels / shelters are based in the larger towns and cities : Swindon, Bath and Bristol.

Most Doorway guests have long-standing connections with Chippenham or North Wiltshire and are reluctant to move out of the area to hostels which many regard as dangerous and hostile places.

Whereas about a third of guests are sleeping rough when they first approach the Doorway centre, they rapidly take up offers of help from friends and aquaintances and become lost among the 'hidden homeless' in the area.