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This page will provide you with information on the duty to refer.
On this page:
Under Section 213b of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, specified public agencies must notify a housing authority of customers they consider to be homeless or at risk of homelessness within 56 days. These agencies are:
Reading Borough Council champions early homelessness prevention and early interventions. We go a step further in Reading, promoting the duty to refer mechanism as the single access gateway for fellow professionals, both from statutory and non-statutory organisations. We want to hear from you if you have concerns surrounding your customers’ accommodation, even before they are threatened with homelessness. Be aware of signs which may result in homelessness. These include, but are not limited to:
Before you make a referral, you must:
If you would like your teams or any individuals to receive further information, the Homelessness Prevention Team is happy to make arrangements to discuss this with you in more detail. This could range from attending a team meeting, an individual conversation, or more formal training. Regardless of how you would like this information to be delivered, please complete our online form and we will be in touch to arrange this.
You can contact the Homeless Prevention Service online by filling in an contact form.