Other Duties

Introduction

The Homelessness Reduction Act includes various Other Duties for local housing authorities beyond the Main Duty, such as the protection of personal property, the duty to cooperate, discretionary duties/powers, and the right to review decisions.

When you have completed this Block, you should have a good understanding of the obligations placed on local authorities with regards to Other Duties. This includes the responsibility for protecting the personal property of individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and you assess are unable to make arrangements to protect their belongings.

You will also have a good knowledge of the Duty to Cooperate which requires collaborative efforts between local authorities and organisations to provide holistic support to individuals facing homelessness. This provides discretionary duties and powers beyond mandatory requirements to allow support to be adapted to individual circumstances.

And finally, you will have looked at the Right to Review, outlined in S202 of the Act, which ensures individuals can request a review of certain decisions related to their homelessness application. This is designed to ensure a transparent and fair process. The process includes responding to the review request and deciding whether or not to uphold the original decision reached which must then be communicated in writing through what is termed a section 202 review decision letter.

This Block also provides guidelines for good practice, a template structure/checklist, and highlights common mistakes and pitfalls to avoid.

The Unit should take 4-6 hours to complete, with 2-3 hours of follow-up readings.

At the end of the Block, there is an Assessment to test your understanding of these other duties. The assessment consists of x yes/no questions. The pass mark is 70 per cent, meaning that 28 of the 40 questions must be answered correctly. Upon passing the assessment, you will receive a certificate showing your accomplishment in your personal dashboard.

There will not be 40 questions for this section. I would anticipate approximately 20 questions all of which should be asked.

Contents

• Introduction
• Other miscellaneous duties under the homelessness legislation
• Protection of Personal Property
• Duty to Cooperate
• Discretionary Duties and Powers
• The Right to Review including:
  • Responding to Reviews, Review Process and Decision Making
  • Writing Decision Letters and Good Practice
  • Template Structure/Checklist and Common Mistakes/Pitfalls

Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit, you should know:

• How to consider and apply the other miscellaneous homelessness powers and duties including:  
• Understand the requirements for when an authority will be under a duty to protect personal property for homeless applicants.
• The importance of cooperating with other organisations effectively and the processes required.
• How to apply discretionary duties/powers effectively.
• The section 202 review process – including responding to reviews, decision-making, and writing the review decision letter.
• How to common good practice guidelines for reviews, the templated structure/checklist, and how to avoid common mistakes/pitfalls.

Conclusion
The conclusion to the learning block.

References & Further Reading
At the end of the Block, you will find all the links to the references and there is also some suggested further reading that may also interest you.

Downloads
Contains the relevant links, by unit, that you will need to access information to support you through the block. The downloads include the Homelessness Reviews Training Toolkit