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Proposals to change tenancy agreements used by supported housing projects could cause more homelessness and deny support to clients in most need, a charity has warned.

Carl Chapple, development officer at Homeless Link Cymru, told delegates that draft proposals to reform operating licences could result in more hostels having to adopt shorthold tenancies that give tenants more rights, such as the ability to stop staff entering their room.

It would also prevent residents from being temporarily excluded if a problem arose, such as occurs in extreme instances of abusive, threatening or violent behaviour.

Under the plans, put forward by the Law Commission as part of its review of the UK system, a magistrate's injunction would instead be required to evict someone.

"The removal of hostels' authority to pursue less formal methods of risk management would likely undermine future work and promote mistrust of the service among clients affected," Chapple said.

He added that the likely result of this would be that hostels would become more selective in who they took in. "This would be considered a means of reducing potential risk, though it might result in some of the most vulnerable clients experiencing greater difficulty in accessing residential services."


Hostels could be exempt from the changes if clients were to access places directly by walking in off the street. But Chapple said this would prevent hostels from carrying out initial assessments of clients' needs and allocating places to the most vulnerable.

"Either of these options would have significant and worrying implications for homelessness in Wales and may ultimately generate additional homelessness," he added.

• Law Commission proposals from www.lawcom.gov.uk