West Northamptonshire Council failed homeless man for second time
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the man had again approached the authority for homelessness assistance in August 2024 after he was forced to return to the same place where he had experienced domestic abuse.He told West Northamptonshire Council he had returned to sleeping in his car and had tried to take his life several times.In response, the council recommended he contact his landlord to ask to move into his tenancy, which was due to start in September, early. It said it recognised he was temporarily homeless, but that Mr X did not meet the priority need criteria for temporary accommodation.
'Significant fault'
The LGSCO report said: "The ombudsman has already found significant fault with this council for its handling of Mr X's case when he previously fled domestic abuse."It said the council "should have considered his approach as a homelessness application, not a request for advice" and "the council's actions amount to a fault".The investigator added that the council's actions and improvements promised after the 2023 incident had not addressed "the underlying issue" of failing to properly identify and assess homelessness applications.The watchdog asked the council to provide evidence that it has given its staff further training, told it to circulate the investigation and apologised to the individual for their faults.West Northamptonshire Council said it was "committed to learning from this [case]" and had "begun taking steps to implement the ombudsman's proposed actions, including further training to our housing and homelessness teams".
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