Southend

Monday, 06-Feb-2012

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>Prioritising Applications

Prioritising Applications

The Council uses a banding scheme to prioritise applications.

All Homeseekers' Register applications received that meet eligibility criteria will be assessed and placed in one of four bands A-D. The table below sets out the banding scheme and gives examples of those applicants who would be eligible to be placed in each band.

Band A (Time Limit of 8 Weeks)	Where you have a local connection, you do not have the means to resolve your housing need and you meet at least one of the following criteria: -We have accepted a duty to re-house you because you are homeless or threatened with homelessness and have a priority need -You lack three or more bedrooms in your current home and your overcrowding is not deliberate -You have exclusive use of one room but you share kitchen or bathroom facilities with non-family members and lack two or more bedrooms (this does not include temporary accommodation) -You have been assessed as statutorily overcrowded -You have two or more bedrooms than you require or you live in an adapted property that you no longer require -We have assessed you as suffering from continuing serious harassment, violence or abuse and a move will improve your circumstances -We have awarded you a High Medical need because your current housing conditions have been assessed as having a significant adverse effect on your medical condition or disability and this will only be improved by a move to alternative accommodation -We have awarded you High Disrepair status -You currently live in supported Move-On accommodation or are a Southend Borough Council Care Leaver and we have assessed you as ready to move into independent accommodation -We have assessed you as having a combined Medium Medical and Medium Disrepair status from Band B -We have assessed you as having other multiple needs within Band B that warrant a Band A priority
Band B	Where you have a local connection, you do not have the means to resolve your housing need and you meet at least one of the following criteria: -We have awarded you a Medium Medical need because you have been assessed as able to use your current home fully with some effort but a move to different accommodation would be likely to substantially improve your quality of life -We have awarded you Medium Disrepair status -You lack two bedrooms in your current home and your overcrowding is not deliberate -We, at our discretion, accept that you have a need to move: Nearer local facilities or relatives, in order to give or receive support or care where this is not available in your current area Into or within the Council area because you have secured / retained permanent employment (over 16 hours) in the area (evidence of the employment must be provided) and it is unreasonable for you to commute from your current home -We have assessed you as having other multiple needs within Band C that warrant a Band B priority -You have been assessed as threatened with homelessness and would be likely to have a priority need if homeless, and you are working with the Council to try to prevent your homelessness
Band C	Where you have a local connection, you do not have the means to resolve your housing need and you meet at least one of the following criteria: -We have awarded you a Low Medical need because your current home has been assessed as having a minimal effect on your medical condition or disability and a move to different accommodation is unlikely to substantially improve your quality of life -We have awarded you Low Disrepair status -You are statutorily homeless or threatened with homelessness but we have assessed you as: Intentionally homeless Not in priority need Sleeping rough and not in priority need Staying with non family members: -You are staying with non-family members, where you do not have the exclusive use of a bedroom/one room. -Where you share facilities with persons who are not members of your household. The Council considers that shared facilities may include: Kitchen Bathroom -You lack one bedroom in your current home and your overcrowding is not deliberate
Band D	-We have assessed you as living in a property which is adequate for your needs in terms of size and facilities. This applies to all applicants regardless of tenure -You do not have a local connection with Southend On Sea Council area -You live in supported Move-On accommodation or are a Care Leaver and we have accepted a responsibility to house you but you are not yet ready to enter independent accommodation
Emergency Cases (28 day time limit)	We will only issue an Exceptional/Emergency status when you are assessed as requiring an urgent move to ensure your immediate safety and welfare for whatever reason and/or when remaining in your current home is likely to cause risk of death or serious mental or physical injury.