Temporary accommodation project evaluation

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, for example, restrictions on movements. 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 often have to deal with different local authorities’ departments when going through a 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.

We delivered two public legal education (PLE) courses, on issues that people identified as most pressing. Each course consisted of the following four modules: 

• Basics of tenancies and other housing agreements,
• Dealing with local authorities in the context of homelessness,
• Living in temporary accommodation, and
• How to apply for social housing. 

Our modules consisted of a short video, 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. We developed a new module and its accompanying video on How to apply for social housing for this project. The video had over 1,500 views in the last year. 

After each PLE course, we organised two specialist follow-up sessions for our training participants, in partnership with the PILC, to explore strategic issues, systemic problems and roots to triage.

In total, 65 people attended our courses (33 in the first course and 35 in the second course) and 32 people attended our follow up workshops (20 after the first course and 12 after the second course). Participants came from a variety of community groups and grassroots organisations. 

We created an information guide What you need to know about emergency and temporary accommodation which received 10,131 pageviews from  September 2023 to September 2024. We also updated our ‘top picks’ section on Advicenow website, which received 16,564 pageviews from September 2023 to September 2024. 

We used ‘before and after’ evaluation methods for each module to capture the impact of our courses on participants’ legal capability (knowledge, confidence, skills). Six months after each course was delivered, we sent our participants an additional evaluation survey to understand the long-term impact of our courses. To measure the impact of our follow-up workshops, we asked participants questions after the workshops.¹

We also thematically analysed comments made by participants during the courses as well as issues raised in the ‘before and after’ course evaluation surveys we sent out to all attendees. 

^{1 The evaluation data was anonymised and any identifiable information was removed to enhance confidentiality and anonymity.}

Impact of our courses on participants’ legal capability

Overall, we measured 37% improvement in participants’ confidence in dealing with legal issues connected to homelessness and temporary accommodation and 20% improvement in participants’ knowledge about the rights of people who are homeless or in temporary accommodation. 

General confidence to deal with legal issues connected to homelessness and temporary accommodation was very low before our courses, despite the fact that participants showed relatively high levels of knowledge. Confidence levels after our courses improved considerably but there was still a significant percentage of people who did not feel confident to deal with legal issues related to homelessness / temporary accommodation after our courses. This is possibly due to legal and procedural complexities related to these topics, and very limited legal protections, and ways in which local authorities operate.² In addition, we find that after learning about the complexities of the law, participants sometimes have lower confidence as they assume beforehand that a process is straightforward and by attending our courses, despite learning more about it, they realise that it is not. 

Participants who attended our follow up workshops were asked questions about their knowledge and confidence about strategic litigation. Overall, 87% of participants felt more informed about how strategic litigation can be used; 71% felt more confident in their ability to recognise what could be a strategic litigation case and 100% felt more informed about what kind of evidence they needed to collect for a strategic litigation case. PILC, who delivered the follow up workshops, was able to take forward 2 strategic litigation cases arising from these workshops. 

Course 1

Follow-up workshops 1

Course 2

Follow-up workshops 2

^{2  Local authorities have their own internal rules and procedures which differ from borough to borough.}

In total, 11 participants (17% of all our participants) completed the follow-up evaluation forms approximately 6-12 months after our courses were delivered. 

92% of them stated that they were able to use what they learned in the training course on temporary accommodation. Ways in which they were able to use their knowledge included: 

• Helping our guests know their rights.
• Supporting clients & colleagues.
• To assess if the council is dealing with the client according to the law.
• Supporting young people after they received refugee status to access local authority temporary housing. 
• Although I give primary stage advice on request, I work mostly on housing policy/systems change with local government. The knowledge I gained from the course helped me to understand what changes we really need.
• Referred to the temporary housing policy available and looked at the videos as a reminder.
• Helped someone homeless challenge a social landlord's decision to not carry out their statutory duty.
• What makes a tenancy in temporary accommodation, resources that are available. 
• The new knowledge has been used in campaigning for better [temporary accommodation], with confidence.

When asked about the the most useful thing they learned on the course, answers included: 

• Difference between a tenancy and a lease
• Who has right for council help
• Writing strong vulnerability letters
• That you can challenge decisions that seem final.
• After I finished the course I felt more able to support people with temporary accommodation issues.
• How landlords misuse the law to deny people TA, when they know that those people are deserving.
• Conditions can be challenged, within 21 days, through the suitability review process.

92% of participants that filled in our follow up evaluation form stated that they were better able to assist others with housing issues since they attended the training course. Numbers of people they were able to better assist ranged from 2, 4, 20, 35, and on average about 5-7 per week. They described ways in which they were able to help others with housing issues: 

Challenges that our participants encountered in applying the knowledge and skills gained on the course included: 

• Limited confidence in challenging local authorities
• Finding the correct person to speak to and forcing the council to answer. 
• Gatekeeping from the local authority. 
• Just the inevitable gatekeeping that Councils use!
• Council red tape.

Delivery of our courses

Our evaluation surveys capture comments about the delivery of our courses which were overwhelmingly positive. 

Suggestions for improvement included: 

• Introducing breaks during webinars (1)
• Including a transcription of small excerpts from the training for people with processing impairment (1)
• Including written summary of case studies discussed (1)
• Creating flowcharts for complex procedures (1)
• Including powerpoint presentations (especially for people with ADHD) (4)
• Difficulties finding time to watch a video before live webinars (5)

Following this feedback, we incorporated the changes wherever possible in our course delivery. For example, we included more powerpoints, we started sending our participants dyslexia-friendly versions of the case studies beforehand, we regularly recap key points from our videos for participants who did not have time to watch them beforehand, we included more breaks and we enabled the “save chat” function so that our participants can save and keep the in-webinar discussions if they want to. 

Access to justice

Finding a solicitor, especially one with the capacity to take on new housing cases was an issue raised across both of our courses and in our strategic litigation workshops. This is also reflected in the enquiries we receive regularly on our website. There is a significant need for accessible legal support in all areas of London, including those that have Law Centres. 

Problems within local authorities

Many participants complained about local authorities. Examples given included: 

• lack of responsiveness, 
• correspondence taking too long, 
• poor communication, 
• high staff turnover, 
• lack of empathy, and
• internal policies that undermine housing legislation. 

Advocates who attended our training said they were sometimes able to challenge these practices but often struggled due to communication challenges within local authorities and problems in accessing legal representation for their clients.

Complexity of local authorities’ procedures

Participants complained that local authorities’ processes are too complex and difficult to navigate for many people, especially those who might have a disability, struggle with literacy or for people who don’t speak English/ speak limited English. 

Housing rights for people with immigration issues 

Many participants highlighted a need for more information on housing rights for people with immigration issues, including: 

• no right to public funds (NRPF), 
• people from Ukraine,
• EU migrants, and 
• refugees. 

Housing rights for survivors of domestic abuse 

Many participants raised questions related to survivors of domestic abuse accessing and maintaining suitable housing. This suggests that this may be a cohort that has significant challenges in accessing and maintaining housing. 

Specific issues regarding homelessness assistance and temporary accommodation

Training participants raised questions and sought further clarification on specific issues connected to homelessness assistance and temporary accommodation, reflecting both broader issues related to this kind of accommodation and inadequacy of the existing legal protections for people in temporary accommodation. We identified the following themes: 

1/ Gatekeeping 

2/ Problems with homelessness assistance at a very late stage of eviction

3/ Local connection 

4/ Intentionality 

5/ Priority need/ vulnerability³

6/ Unsuitable temporary accommodation (placement of families in hotels for a very long time, disrepair, frequent moves, long stays in temporary accommodation, out of borough placements) 

7/ Complexities related to lack of social housing, i.e. challenges navigating rules and responsibilities of different temporary accommodation providers.

^{3 We delivered two specialist workshops on writing vulnerability letters for single people facing homelessness. They were not part of this project but participants from this project were invited to attend them.}

The project evaluation demonstrates the value of and further need to continue public legal education programmes in London and highlighted areas for further exploration. For example, the data shows a clear need for more information on housing rights for survivors of domestic abuse and people with uncertain immigration status.

A notable theme raised by most participants in our courses/follow-up workshops was about access to justice, highlighting the abysmal impact of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which manifested in almost a complete absence of legal assistance for a range of housing issues, including homelessness.⁴ 

Thematic analysis of our courses also reflects wider systemic issues connected to the housing crisis in London and the situation of people living in temporary accommodation. In particular: 

• Problems within local authorities stemming from inadequate funding, lack of capacity of the local authorities’ staff and their insufficient training.
• Complexities of local authorities’ procedures around homelessness and housing, which are particularly challenging for people with disabilities, people with limited/no English, and other vulnerabilities. 
• Gatekeeping and homelessness assistance at the very last stage of eviction were highlighted as particularly challenging to deal with for community organisations, grassroots groups, and social prescribers who typically attend our training courses. 
• Other challenges included aspects of the homelessness assistance - local connection, “priority need” (particularly for single people with disabilities/other vulnerabilities), intentionality and local connection. 
• Unsuitable temporary accommodation (placement of families in hotels for a very long time; disrepair; frequent moves; long stays in temporary accommodation; out of borough placements) was mentioned throughout our courses with abundance of examples given and participants feeling upset in many of our modules due to their lack of ability to improve the situation for their clients who find themselves in unsuitable accommodation and the impact this has on them and their families. 
• Complexities related to lack of social housing, i.e. challenges navigating rules and responsibilities of different temporary accommodation providers also presented as a significant challenge for our course participants. 

^{4 For any housing lawyers that are left - people can go to GOV.UK https://find-legal-advice.justice.gov.uk/ and click on the box Housing loss prevention advice service.}