Family left to sofa surf for 12 months after being ‘forgotten’ by London borough, says Ombudsman

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found that a family in London had to ‘sofa surf’ for 12 months because their council forgot about them after they became homeless in 2022.

The Ombudsman concluded that the London Borough of Waltham Forest did not do enough to help the family find interim and temporary accommodation, despite deciding at that time that it had a statutory duty to help them.

In January 2023 the council wrote to the family, and despite them saying they were sofa surfing with friends, the council missed telephone appointments arranged to review their situation.

In late April 2023 the family told the council they were still staying with friends and family and were having difficulty getting the children to school because of long travel distances.

Waltham Forest decided in August 2023 that, because the family’s circumstances had changed, it did not owe them the main housing duty and so its responsibility to help the family find accommodation ended.

Following the Ombudsman’s investigation, the council has agreed to apologise to the family and pay them a total of £6,000 for the time they spent without interim accommodation.

Waltham Forest has additionally agreed to remind staff about its duty to provide interim accommodation if it has “reason to believe” a person is homeless, eligible for assistance and in priority need.

It will also provide evidence of the steps it is taking to source sufficient interim accommodation, including an update in nine months’ time on its progress. It will explain the steps it has taken to reduce delays in making homelessness decisions caused by staffing shortages and develop an action plan on how it will address delays at stage 2 of its complaints process.

Amerdeep Somal, who became Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in January 2024, said: “The council had a duty to help relieve this family’s homelessness for 12 months, but it cannot show it took any proactive steps to help them find suitable accommodation, or even look into alternative accommodation, such as a property with fewer bedrooms than they needed.

“Its own records show it had no idea where the family were living for much of the period. Had the family not been forgotten about, there is a good chance they would have been able to secure accommodation with the council’s help. Instead, the family had to rely on the goodwill of family and friends to put them up, often at a distance from the children’s schools.

 “Given that there were homeless children involved in this case, I would have expected the council to liaise with its children’s services department to check their wellbeing. It failed to do so for a year.”

Somal voiced her concern that the council had not been able to tell the Ombudsman how many other families have been owed an interim duty but not been provided with accommodation.

The severe shortage of suitable accommodation, particularly in London, was taken into account but Somal suggested it was “not simply good enough” for the council to say it had been short-staffed and lacked available accommodation. It still had to fulfil its statutory duties, she said.

Somal added: “The council has now told us it is making strides to invest in more accommodation for people in the borough. I hope the recommendations it has agreed to carry out will further improve the services it offers.”

Cllr Ahsan Khan, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration at Waltham Forest Council, said: “We work hard to ensure that anyone who approaches us at risk of being made homeless receives the help and support they rightly deserve. We know how worrying and stressful it can be for anyone who finds themselves in this situation.

“We know that in this incident we did not meet the high standards that we set for ourselves. We have accepted and are putting into place the recommendations we have received from the ombudsman, and we apologise to the resident affected for their experience.”

Earlier this week, Local Government Lawyer revealed that the London Borough of Haringey had agreed to review how it takes account of its Equality Act duties when considering the suitability of temporary accommodation for homeless families.

This came after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld the complaint of a Haringey resident, Mr B, who said the council did not properly support his family and their non-verbal autistic children, X and Y, when they were evicted.