Improving access to information and understanding of the legal rights of Londoners living in temporary accommodation
In November 2022, we started our new, two-year project for London-based community groups supporting people in temporary accommodation in addressing their legal problems. This project will be delivered in partnership with the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC). We are grateful to the Trust for London and the Oak Foundation for funding this project.
Why are we doing this project?
The law applying to people living in temporary accommodation is particularly complex and confusing. Their legal rights change depending on the type of temporary accommodation they are living in (some are tenants, other licensees, some live in shelters, others in the private rented sector). Very often their situation provides them with very little room for negotiation around disrepair and they are often subject to specific rules applied to their daily lives (restrictions on movements, overcrowding). Many providers of temporary accommodation, especially in London, are large private companies who often prove hard to hold to account.
In addition, people in temporary accommodation need to be able to deal with different local authorities’ departments in the context of their homelessness application process and when bidding for social housing. A lot of technical language is used, and some words/concepts have different meanings. For instance, eligibility requirements are different for the homelessness application process than the bidding system. The standard of ‘suitability’ also changes depending on the stage of the homelessness application (interim/emergency) and in the social housing system.
What will we do?
Consultation
We will conduct an online consultation for people living in temporary accommodation and their support workers to help us understand the key challenges in understanding and addressing legal problems related to temporary accommodation.
PLE programme
We will deliver two public legal education (PLE) programmes, one each year, on issues that people identify as most pressing. The programme will consist of approximately four modules which will follow the legal journey from homelessness to temporary accommodation to (hopefully) secure housing.
Each module that we deliver will consist of:
- a short video, which will be available on YouTube during and after the project delivery, and
- an online interactive workshop to help participants build skills and confidence in applying relevant sections of the law, through group exercises and experience sharing.
Specialist follow-up sessions in partnership with the Public Interest Law Centre
After each PLE programme, we will organise two specialist follow-up sessions for our training participants, in partnership with the PILC, to explore strategic issues, systemic problems and roots to triage. This will also allow us to understand the challenges people face when applying the knowledge gained through our training.
Signposting to existing information resources
We will conduct a review of the available information on the rights of people in temporary accommodation. We will then create a summary of the reliable, up-to-date information on this topic.
If you are from a London - based group helping people living in temporary accommodation and you would like to hear more or participate in this programme, please get in touch with us: Rowan.Milligan@lawforlife.org.uk or Dada.Felja@lawforlife.org.uk.
Thanks to the Trust for London and the Oak Foundation for funding this work.
Last edited on December 5, 2022.