Homeless man left to sleep on the streets because council did not do enough to help

Council failings left a vulnerable man rough sleeping, a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation has found.

The man first approached London Borough of Croydon for help in July 2023 after he had become homeless. However, the Ombudsman’s investigation found the council lost the man’s records, and during this time, his mental health worsened and he lost touch with his family.

Several months later, the man contacted his family, and with the help of one of his sisters, made a fresh homelessness application.

In late October another sister found the man sleeping outside her house in the rain. She said her brother could stay with her, but this could not be long-term as she was seriously unwell and his mental health needs meant living with him was challenging.

The council closed the man’s case in November without telling the sister who was helping him talk to the council, after it claimed it unsuccessfully tried to reach the man. However, the sister told the Ombudsman she waited by her phone and called the council three times on the day an interview had been arranged.

The relationship between the man and the sister he was living with soon broke down. After the man’s other sister asked the council for help again, it eventually placed him in interim accommodation in March 2024. The council decided it owed him the main housing duty in September.

Later that month, the council sent the man his Personalised Housing Plan which, confusingly, included actions for him to take including to provide his partner’s passport and proof of income. It stated the ‘applicant [was] to view accommodation sent to her’ and that he was to ‘inform the council after the child has been born’.

The man was the sole applicant and was not pregnant, and the Plan was sent at a time the man had already been provided with temporary accommodation. The Ombudsman said this was further evidence of the council’s failure to grasp the case.

“This is a clear case of the dire things that can happen when councils are not on top of their homelessness services and allow vulnerable people to fall through the cracks,” Ms Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said.

“The siblings have told me this has caused substantial damage to their relationships. The man had a mental health crisis during the time he was missing and has since been withdrawn and isolated, and the sisters are still working to rebuild his trust.

“Sadly this is not an isolated case in the borough. In the past two years we have investigated eight other homelessness cases and upheld every one.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the man and pay him £2,000 in recognition of the injustice he faced. It will also pay him £6,400 for the cost of the bed and breakfast accommodation he paid for between May and October 2023.

It will also apologise to the man’s sisters and pay them a combined £700 for their distress.

The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case the council will review the man’s case to consider what action it needs to take to ensure it identifies and responds to communications from homeless people and their representatives without delay.

It will also remind staff about its duties around closing cases, and reconsider what it should do to ensure it issues completed, accurate Personalised Housing Plans to applicants in a timely way.

“I am pleased the council has accepted our findings and recommendations, I urge the council to take a firm grasp of its homelessness service to ensure other vulnerable residents are not treated in the same way as this man,” the Ombudsman added.

“The council has been subject to statutory government intervention since 2023. This intervention is currently under review so I will be sharing a copy of this report with the Minister for Local Government and English Devolution.”