Guidance

Homelessness: duty to refer

This guidance provides an overview of the duty to refer, which will help public authorities understand how to administer the duty.

• From: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
• Published: 21 September 2018
• Last updated: 28 September 2018 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

A guide to the duty to refer

HTML

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Duty to refer: referral form

MS Word Document, 62.5 KB

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Duty to refer: referral form

ODT, 14.2 KB

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Local authority duty to refer emails

HTML

View online

Details

From 1 October 2018 certain named public bodies will have a duty to refer users of their service who they have reason to believe are homeless or threatened with becoming homeless within 56 days, to a local authority of the service users’ choice.

The duty is part of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 which came into force on 3 April 2018.

The guide outlines what the purpose of the duty to refer is, some advice for identifying when someone is threatened with homelessness, and what the procedures are for referring someone to a local authority. It also answers some frequently asked questions.

Published 21 September 2018
Last updated 28 September 2018 + show all updates

1. 28 September 2018

   Added list of local authority duty to refer emails.

2. 21 September 2018

   First published.