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FOI request (FOIR-340986942)
Housing statistics
Requested Wed 09 June 2021
Responded Wed 23 June 2021Please provide me with the following information:
Statistics for the past 3 years of who has been housed by Hastings Borough Council. Please provide all ethnicities including UK nationals, British born, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, citizenship pending, military veterans, people with and without family in Hastings.
Response
Following clarification I can advise as follows:
Q1: Households 'placed' in these properties (social housing) and issued with a non-secure tenancy.
• Answer: Information provided is based on 'social housing' - the council does not 'place' or 'house' people in 'social housing'. Social housing in Hastings is owned and managed by Registered Providers (housing associations). The 2 main ones are Optivo and Orbit. We operate a choice based lettings system called Sussex Homemove where households can 'bid' for social housing properties via our housing register. We manage the housing register shortlists and 'nominate' households for these properties to the Registered Providers. The Register Providers carry out the viewings and offer/let the properties to these households and issue them with the tenancy agreements.
We do not hold information on tenancies issued by the Registered Providers to these households. The council operates a social lettings agency called 'Letstart' where homeless households rent private rented properties. Households are issued with 'non-secure tenancies'. These properties are not 'social housing'. More information about the social lettings agency is available on our website at https://www.hastings.gov.uk/housing/landlord/544003/.
Q2: Has temporary accommodation, but again households are temporarily 'placed' into these properties pending investigation into their homelessness.
• Answer: The number of homeless households placed in temporary accommodation is published on the government's website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
Q3: Works with a private company to house people in their properties and are issued with an assured shorthold tenancy.
• Answer: The number of homeless households housed in private rented properties is published on the government's website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
Q4: Transferred to 1066 Housing Association (now Optivo).
• Answer: The Council does not own any Council Housing (social housing). The Council's housing stock was transferred to 1066 Housing Association (now Optivo) in 1996 as part of a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT).
Q5: Also add please the breakdown into families and single occupancy and people recovering from addiction/ alcoholism and the success rate and waiting time to be housed.
• Answer:
• Social housing (Q1 answer above) - this would involve a manual search of housing register applications to find information on addiction/alcoholism and would exceed the 18 hours - see refusal notice below.
• Temporary accommodation (Q2 answer above) / homeless households (Q3 answer above) - this would involve a manual search of cases to find information on addiction/alcoholism and would exceed the 18 hours -see refusal notice below. However, 'support needs of households', which includes 'Alcohol dependency needs', is published on the government's website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
• Wait times for:
- (a) social housing - see attached spreadsheet
- (b) temporary accommodation - homeless households who present to the council are assessed by a Housing Options Officers. If temporary accommodation is required for that household then a property is sourced on an ad hoc nightly basis based on their housing need/bed size. Household composition is published on the government's website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
Q6: Also please supply armed forces covenant agreed by HBC.
• Answer: - The armed forces covenant is available at https://www.essp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/East-Sussex-Community-Covenant-signed-14-05-13.pdf.
Q7: Housed in the past 3 years:
• Answer:
• Social Housing (Q5 above). To join our housing register, households must meet the criteria set out in our Homemove Allocation Scheme - see Hastings Homemove Allocation Scheme 2018.
- All ethnicities including UK nationals, British born, legal immigrants - this would involve a manual search of records and would exceed the 18 hours - see refusal notice below.
- Illegal immigrants, citizenship pending - these households would not be eligible to join our housing register - see Hastings Homemove Allocation Scheme 2018 for households who are eligible/not eligible to join our housing register.
- Military veterans housed:
2018/2019 = 0
2019/2020 = 1 x 'military personnel' family housed
2020/2021 = 0
- People with and without family in Hastings - households may advise that they have family in Hastings, but this would involve a manual search of housing register records to find this information and would exceed the 18 hours - see refusal notice below. Households cannot join our housing register solely based on having family in Hastings, to join they must meet the criteria as set out in our Homemove Allocation Scheme.
• temporary accommodation/homelessness
- All ethnicities including UK nationals, British born, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, citizenship pending ,military veterans - this information is available on the government's website https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.
- People with and without family in Hastings - households may advise their Housings Options Officer that they have family in Hastings, but this would involve a manual search of cases to find this information and would exceed the 18 hours - see refusal notice below.
NOTICE OF REFUSAL
To obtain the information requested would require us to manually search customer records and would far exceed the time limit set out by the Information Commissioner therefore under S12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000 provides an exemption from the obligation to comply with a request for information if the estimated costs of complying with that request would exceed the prescribed appropriate limit.
We estimate that the costs of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit by a significant amount.
For this reason we feel unable to comply with this request.
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Freedom of Information
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