A Bristol family was forced to share a single hotel room for more than three years because of failures in the council’s homelessness system, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found.
The family was evicted from their private tenancy flat in early 2014. After asking Bristol Council for help, they had to stay in single hotel rooms with no cooking facilities and frequently had to move at short notice. As a result of mistakes by council staff and failures to properly implement procedures, the family’s housing application was not registered until March last year. Two of their children have visual impairments and were being schooled in their hotel room. This led to the council’s children’s services department being involved, but they failed to refer the case to the housing department.
The Ombudsman found the council failed to accept the family’s homelessness application and reportedly tried to charge the family the full cost for storing their belongings while living in a hotel room. In normal circumstances families should only be accommodated in hotels for a maximum period of six weeks. Michael King, said the council followed his recommendations once the investigation began. He said the council found a home for the family within two months of them being placed on the register, which suggested “just how desperate the family’s situation was.”
The council apologised for any hurt caused to the family, and “any failures that led to them living in unsuitable conditions for such a long time”. Their statement added “While we recognise the situation was unacceptable for a family with young children, we do believe that we tried to do our best for the family on a number of occasions.” The case “did not live up to our usual high standards,” but said “the length of time since the application and the difficulties in making meaningful contact with the family” made the case unusual.
By Patrick Mooney, editor