Civil way: 23 March 2018

• Housing officers distraught.
• Enforcement officers smiling.
• No Corn from Cobb.

THAT WAS MY HOME THAT WAS: 1ST DOSE

A feast for housing lawyers. A nightmare for local authority housing officers. More appeals for the county court. And maybe a blessing for the actual and threatened homeless, particularly those who have no priority need or are intentionally homeless. That, folks, is the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (HRA 2017), which amends the Housing Act 1996 and is brought into force with application to England and Wales only on 3 April 2018 by SI 2018/167. It builds on the full housing duty owed to the those who score on priority and unintentional homelessness. A new statutory code of guidance for local authorities has recently been issued and can be found here.

A person will be deemed to be threatened with homelessness if it is likely they will become actually homeless within 56 days as against the current 28 days as will the recipient of a valid assured shorthold s 21 of the