Council rapped over family’s plight

4:13pm Friday 21st September 2007

EASTLEIGH Borough Council mishandled a homelessness application from a family with four young children and left them split up and without proper accommodation for 11 weeks, according to the local government ombudsman.

In a damning report, he says the council failed to offer interim bed-and-breakfast accommodation, and he finds the council guilty of maladministration.

"The family was unable to remain together, relying on staying with friends and relatives and sometimes sleeping on floors," the report states.

It notes that the family, who are not being identified, were in that situation over Christmas.

One member of the family, given the alias, "Mrs Ward", made a homelessness application to the council after their home had been repossessed.

The Ombudsman said: "There is no evidence to show that the council took the necessary steps to satisfy itself as to Mrs Ward's homelessness and priority need or that it offered her and her family interim bed-and-breakfast accommodation."

The council also failed to maintain proper records in accordance with its procedure for homelessness applications and delayed issuing its decision for seven weeks.

In recognition of the injustice, the family is to receive £3,000 from the council, which said it accepted the ombudsman's findings.