Duty to refer homeless or threatened with homelessness households

As of 1 October 2018 certain public authorities have a duty to refer homeless or threatened with homelessness households to local housing authorities.

The specified public authorities subject to the duty to refer are -

• prisons
• young offender institutions
• secure training centres
• secure colleges
• youth offending teams
• probation services (including community rehabilitation companies)
• Job Centre's in England
• social service authorities (both adult and children's)
• emergency departments
• urgent treatment centres
• hospitals in their function of providing inpatient care
• Secretary of State for defence in relation to members of the regular armed forces

This is a statutory requirement and applies to households where the service user may be homeless or at risk of homelessness and has agreed to the referral.

If you have a homeless household that you wish to refer to Stratford on Avon District Council under the Housing Act 1996 - Section 213B (Part VII), as amended under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, please complete the online form below.

For any Duty to Refer (DTR) Forms completed in a hospital setting please also email the community street outreach NHS nursing team directly at homeless.team@swft.nhs.uk. These forms will be triaged by a Homeless specialist nurse or support worker on a daily basis and will be acted upon accordingly for community follow up if necessary. (Please note - this is for clinical nursing follow up and will not effect any accommodation decision).

For urgent enquiries, please call the Housing Advice Team on 01789 260861