Liverpool Council has been criticised and forced to pay compensation to a man after its failures left him homeless on the streets of the city for six months during the Covid pandemic.
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has found that a man who became homeless in June 2020 and was in need of surgery had contacted the city council for help several times.
Despite repeated calls for help and concerns raised by police about the man's mental health, the man remained on the city streets until December 2020 when he was taken by family to another area where he was helped by a different council.
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According to a report by the Local Government Ombudsman, the council recorded that it had lost contact with the man in March 2021 and closed his case, even though it had not responded to his requests for help or to a complaint made in January 2021 about the issues. The council has now apologised to the man and paid him £2,600 in compensation.
The LGO report sets out the different failures Liverpool Council made when dealing with the man and how these contributed to his homelessness and deteriorating health.
The report states that the man became street homeless in June 2020 when he had an untreated medical condition for which he was awaiting surgery. He contacted the council using a number he found online and left a message saying he was street homeless and needed help. The answer phone greeting for the number said he would receive a call back within 48 hours.
The man said he did not receive a response from the council so tried a different number in August 2020. The member of staff he spoke to told him the number he used in June was wrong as it was only for people who already had a homelessness application open. They said the council had now logged his case and he would receive a call back within 48 hours, but the man said this did not happen.
In mid-September 2020, the man called the council’s Careline service. This is the first contact the council recorded from home. It logged the call as a new homelessness case. Five days later, the council had not taken any action, so the man's friend rang to chase this up on his behalf.
A further five days after this, the police contacted the council and said the man was homeless and they had concerns about his mental health. The council’s internal records showed the case was escalated to a senior member of staff at this stage. However, the council did not take any action or contact the man.
In December 2020, the man had been street homeless for six months and not received any contact from the council. His sister drove from outside the council’s area to collect him. The council where his sister lived assessed him as homeless and provided him with accommodation for the next four months, away from the Liverpool area where his children lived.
The man complained to Liverpool Council in January 2021. In March 2021 the council closed the man's case, recording it had ‘lost contact’ with him.
In late-April 2021, the man received the surgery he needed for his medical condition and moved in with his sister temporarily while he recovered. In May 2021, Liverpool Council then began progressing a homelessness application for him because of his complaint. It offered him interim accommodation.
The man did not accept this offer because he was no longer street homeless and felt too vulnerable to stay in a shared hostel while recovering from surgery. Shortly afterwards he returned to Liverpool and began renting accommodation privately.
In its analysis of Liverpool Council's actions, the LGO said: "We found the council was at fault because it failed to act in line with its statutory duties when the man told it he was street homeless in 2020, closed his homelessness application in March 2021 without contacting him about this and did not properly consider his complaint about these issues in line with its complaints procedure.
"Our view is the council’s fault meant he was street homeless for six months, then had to live outside the council’s area away from his children for four months. This placed him at risk of harm and caused him significant avoidable distress. He also spent avoidable time and trouble pursuing his complaint."
Responding to the report, Michelle Langan, who runs Liverpool-based homeless charity Papercup Project said: "It was heartbreaking to read this story about how a vulnerable man was left without support. It is damning that he was forced to seek help from another council, especially as Liverpool has previously been held up as an example of a city leading in good practice in the fight against homelessness.
"I do hope that lessons have been learnt by adult services and that nobody else experiencing homelessness has to go through such a traumatic ordeal again."
Anne Marie Lubanski, Liverpool’s director of Adult Care and Health and Homelessness, said: “We apologise unreservedly for the failings in this case and have accepted the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in full.
“Every year we successfully support hundreds of people off the streets and into accommodation but in this instance we let this man down and for that we are sorry.
“We have apologised personally and paid him compensation for the avoidable distress and risk of harm, and the time and trouble he spent pursuing the complaint.
“We have learned lessons from what went wrong and have reviewed our procedures for homelessness referrals and reminded staff of our duty to support homeless people in a timely manner.”
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