Homelessness prevention: business and regulatory impact assessment

Objective

The primary aim of the homelessness prevention measures is to prevent homelessness before it occurs, therefore shifting from a crisis response to an upstream prevention response, while sharing the responsibility for doing so across the public sector.

The Programme for Government,^[8] published on 5 September 2023, makes a commitment to work with Local Government and stakeholders to stabilise and reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation, and to introduce the Housing (Scotland) Bill to create powers for the introduction of long term rent controls, create new tenants’ rights and to introduce new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.

This will be supportive of the following National Performance Framework objectives,^[9] which are fundamental to the ambition to end homelessness in Scotland:

• We grow up loved, safe and respected so that we realise our full potential
• We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe
• We respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination
• We tackle poverty by sharing opportunities, wealth and power more equally.

The introduction of legislation creating new homelessness prevention duties was a commitment in Housing to 2040,^[10] which sets out that “we will develop homeless prevention legislation to ensure public bodies across Scotland have responsibilities for preventing homelessness. This could mean, for example, that a patient in hospital would be asked about their housing situation and referred to the local authority for housing support if needed, before they reach crisis point”.

We will achieve this by introducing the following:

• An ‘ask and act’ requirement, which will apply to relevant bodies and require them to take action within their existing powers or make a referral to local authorities on behalf of people identified as at risk of homelessness, or both
• A duty on local authorities to act six months before potential homelessness rather than the current two and to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness
• A requirement for referrals from relevant bodies to local authorities on behalf of a household to be treated as an application for assistance
• Changes to the definition of domestic abuse as it applies within housing legislation, to ensure recognition of the widest possible range of activities which constitute domestic abuse, aligning the definition of domestic abuse with the most up to date definition of domestic abuse offered by the criminal law
• The requirement for social landlords to have a domestic abuse policy setting out how they will support their tenants
• A requirement for local authorities to include an assessment of housing support needs in Local Housing Strategies.^[11]