FOI request (FOIR-410182108)

Temporary accommodation

Requested Wed 23 March 2022
Responded  Thu 25 August 2022

This request is about your use of temporary accommodation which is in a local authority district other than your own for households which have been accepted as homeless.

1. How many units of temporary accommodation does the council have access to within its own district?

2. Please provide a list of the locations where you have placed households for temporary accommodation. For each of these locations please provide the first part of the postcode of the location in which they have been placed. For example, SE1.

a. 2018/19

b. 2019/20

c. 2020/21

2. Please say how many households you have placed in temporary accommodation in a local authority district other than your own for:

a. Less than six months

b. Six months to one year

c. One year to two years

d. Longer than two years

3 Please provide a breakdown of the ethnic backgrounds of households placed in temporary accommodation in another local authority district for each of the past three financial years:

a. 2018/19

b. 2019/20

c. 2020/21

4. How many of the households you placed in temporary accommodation in another local authority district declared the following vulnerabilities:

a. They were fleeing domestic violence

b. They had children who were known to social services

c. They had mental health problems

d. They were a 'young applicant'. That is 16 to 17 year olds, and 18 to 20 year old care leavers.

5. How much have you spend on temporary accommodation in total over the past three financial years:

a. 2018/19

b. 2019/20

c. 2020/21

6. How much have you paid in incentive payments to landlords for temporary accommodation in the past three financial years:

a. 2018/19

b. 2019/20

c. 2020/21

Response

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

1. Most of our temporary accommodation is owned and managed by other providers. Properties are sourced on a nightly basis as and when required, therefore the number of properties/location can vary day to day. When households are placed outside of the borough, we try and bring them back to our borough as soon as a property becomes available for the size of that household. 16/17 year olds = Two - low-medium support beds in Hastings (established February 2022). Two further high intensive support beds are available in Eastbourne, to which 16/17 year olds anywhere in East Sussex would have access following assessment.

2. East Sussex and Kent.

a. Less than six months = 559 households

b. Six months to one year = 49 households

c. One year to two years = 18 households

d. Longer than two years = 1 household

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information in relation to the locations of where households are placed is exempt under Section 38 (1) (b) of the FOIA 2000 - Health and Safety.

S38 allows public authorities to decline a request for information if it will endanger the safety of any individual. Under S38 we are not obliged to confirm or deny if we hold the information you have requested.

S38 is also subject to public interest test where public authorities have to consider if disclosing information is outweighed in cases where the health and safety of an individual or a group of individuals is put at risk.

We have identified the following public interest factors that may be seen as encouraging the disclosure of information:

a. Transparency and accountability

We consider these factors to be generally of limited or no relevance in relation to the information in question.

Public interest factors seen as encouraging non-disclosure are, generally, the exemptions themselves.

In consideration of this matter we came to the following conclusions:

a. The safety of any individual

b. Information, which if disclosed, could predictably be used to or would otherwise harm the safety of a vulnerable individual or a group of individuals.

c. The safety of these individuals is paramount

In weighing the factors for and against disclosure we have concluded that the likely benefit to the applicant and the wider public of disclosure is outweighed by the likely prejudice caused by such disclosure and that therefore the public interest is better served by non-disclosure.

3. Please see attached spreadsheet

4a. 52 households

4b. Information not held

4c. 310 households

4d. 16/17 year olds - Any 16/17 year old would only be placed within county. 18 to 24 Care leaver = 7 households

5a. 2018/19 - £1,229,592.16

5b. 2019/20 - £2,310,601.01

5c. 2020/21 - £2,953,973.12

For 16/17 year olds, temporary accommodation is provided under the Children's Services Supported Accommodation Framework to which providers were invited to be when established in 2019. The question is declined due to commercial sensitivity.

6a, 6b and 6c. None, Hastings Borough Council does not pay incentives to temporary accommodation providers.

Attachments

• FOIR-410182108_FOIR-410182108_1-FOIR-410182108_-_information_for_question_3_-_Ethnic.xlsx