I SPOKE to a woman recently who had become homeless through no fault of her own. She had lived with her partner and children and life had been very hard for them all. They were wrongfully evicted from their home by a private landlord and are currently fighting against this decision with the help of Shelter and other organisations.

After sofa surfing for a while with their children they reached out to their local authority for help. They had little knowledge of their legal rights and were struggling to survive on a day-to-day basis. They simply wanted somewhere warm and safe for them all to sleep.

Upon approaching their local housing options department, the family were told in no uncertain terms that the local authority had no legal obligation to house the parents but just had a duty of care towards the children. As a result, their children were taken into care and they are now street homeless.
They did not know that the local council did in fact have a duty of care towards both the parents and children and had also ignored the fact that they had not made themselves intentionally homeless, a term that appears to get used far too often by local councils.