Waltham Forest Council has apologised after a family was forced to stay with relatives and friends – or ‘sofa surfing’ – for a year because the local authority forgot about them.
An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) found the council did not do enough to help the family find interim and temporary accommodation between August 2022 and August 2023, despite deciding it had a statutory duty to help.
After missing telephone appointments with the family and after being informed that the children’s education was being put at risk, the council finally decided it no longer had a responsibility to help the family find accommodation due to a change of circumstances.
Ms Amerdeep Somal, LGSCO, 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.’
She added: ‘I am concerned the council has not been able to tell us how many other families have been owed an interim duty but not been provided with accommodation.’
Cllr Ahsan Khan, deputy leader and cabinet member for Housing and Regeneration, said: ‘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.’
