Summary

Description

Decisions on whether a household is homeless and in priority need from 2011 Q1 to 2014 Q2. The term "Homelessness" is often considered to apply only to people "sleeping rough". However, most of our statistics on homelessness relate to the statutorily homeless i.e. those households which meet specific criteria of priority need set out in legislation, and to whom a homelessness duty has been accepted by a local authority. Such households are rarely homeless in the literal sense of being without a roof over their heads, but are more likely to be threatened with the loss of, or are unable to continue with, their current accommodation. A detailed explanation of the responsibilities of local authorities in this area is available from the DCLG website, [here](http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/homelessnessstatistics/notesdefinitions/). All households that apply for assistance under the Housing and Homelessness Acts are referred to as "decisions". However, these do not include households found to be ineligible for assistance (some persons from abroad are ineligible for assistance). This dataset provides statistics on the numbers of decisions made on applications for assistance. The data is broken down by local authority and according to the outcome of the decision: either rejected, together with reason for rejection, or accepted. The numbers are presented in terms of households, not individuals. A household is defined as: one person living alone, or a group of people living at the same address who share common housekeeping or a living room. This data is also available in Table 784a, available for download as an [Excel spreadsheet](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/358231/Table_784a.xls).