The government has insisted that most people evicted as a result of
antisocial behaviour would be considered to have made themselves
intentionally homeless. This would relieve councils of the burden
of finding them accommodation.
The clarification follows a court ruling that forced a council to
take responsibility for a single mother and her five children
evicted by a housing association on the grounds of one son's
behaviour. The judge said the mother had tried to curb her son's
behaviour and therefore had not made herself intentionally
homeless.
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The ruling resulted in the council housing the family in a
Travelodge hotel at the cost of £700 a week.
But a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said
this case was unusual. Although a local authority must place in
temporary accommodation an intentionally homeless family evicted
under antisocial behaviour laws, it would not normally owe a main
homelessness duty to these families.
