Number of homeless deaths between 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2023
Case reference FOI2024/00951
Received 28 May 2024
Published 26 June 2024
Request
I am requesting information about the number of homeless deaths in your local authority area, from 1st January 2023 – 31st December 2023 (inclusive), in each of the following housing situations:
- accommodation for homeless people commissioned by your council, including hostels and supported accommodation for people identified as rough sleeping or with a history of rough sleeping
- exempt accommodation
- temporary accommodation commissioned by your local authority, including B&B
- people who died whilst rough sleeping or with no fixed abode
For clarification exempt accommodation is essentially 'private supported housing', meaning it has not been commissioned or funded by a local authority and is not provided by a registered social landlord or a specialist organisation. Exempt accommodation is a form of 'unspecified accommodation' within the Housing Benefit rules and local authorities are usually in touch with these types of accommodation at three points:
o the Housing Benefit Team, in their role assessing & awarding HB claims
o the Private Sector Housing Team, in their role enforcing HMO standards
o the Community Safety Team, in their role responding to ASB and neighbour complaints
Where you have access to any of the following information, please include; the cause of death or suspected cause of death, date of death, the person’s gender, the person’s age when they died, their ethnicity, and their immigration status. If you cannot provide any of this additional information, then please just provide the number of deaths.
Response
I am requesting information about the number of homeless deaths in your local authority area, from 1st January 2023 – 31st December 2023 (inclusive), in each of the following housing situations:
- accommodation for homeless people commissioned by your council, including hostels and supported accommodation for people identified as rough sleeping or with a history of rough sleeping
- exempt accommodation
- temporary accommodation commissioned by your local authority, including B&B
- people who died whilst rough sleeping or with no fixed abode
For clarification exempt accommodation is essentially 'private supported housing', meaning it has not been commissioned or funded by a local authority and is not provided by a registered social landlord or a specialist organisation. Exempt accommodation is a form of 'unspecified accommodation' within the Housing Benefit rules and local authorities are usually in touch with these types of accommodation at three points:
o the Housing Benefit Team, in their role assessing & awarding HB claims
o the Private Sector Housing Team, in their role enforcing HMO standards
o the Community Safety Team, in their role responding to ASB and neighbour complaints
Where you have access to any of the following information, please include; the cause of death or suspected cause of death, date of death, the person’s gender, the person’s age when they died, their ethnicity, and their immigration status. If you cannot provide any of this additional information, then please just provide the number of deaths.
The Service Area have confirmed the following cases are ones that were known to the Housing Solutions Team at the time of the person’s death. There may have been other deaths that are not known to the team.
· One person died in supported accommodation commissioned by Herefordshire Council for homeless persons.
· The Housing Solutions Team does not record whether a property is ‘exempt’ therefore this information is not held.
· There are no reports of any deaths for people in temporary accommodation commissioned by Herefordshire Council under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996.
· There were five deaths of people who were believed to be rough sleeping or with no fixed abode.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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