Homelessness Service - privacy notice

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council of Town Hall, Crossley Street, Halifax, HX1 1UJ is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) under the provision of the Data Protection Act 2018. The Council takes its responsibilities as Data Controller under the Data Protection Act and UK GDPR very seriously. 

This privacy notice explains how your personal information will be processed by our Homelessness service in connection with its legal responsibilities to assess an applicant’s housing situation and if eligible prevent the applicant from becoming homeless. (For example, by liaising with landlords who are wanting to evict the client to allow the applicant to keep their tenancy) or to relieve them from being actually homeless. (For example, to provide emergency accommodation to get them off of the streets or provide support to find their own long-term accommodation). 

This notice covers the following Calderdale Council services:

• Housing Options Team
• Housing Support Team (Adults & Social Services)
• Homes for Ukraine Team
• Migration & Resettlement Team
• Safe Accommodation Team
• Temporary Accommodation and Support Service
• Young Person’s Service (Calderdale FOYER)
• The Acorns
• Calderdale Single Point of Access (SPoA) for Housing Related Support

The type of information we will collect

We collect personal information from you directly. (For example, online, in person or via the Housing Options team) or from third parties such as other Council services, landlords, DWP, Probation, Police, NHS, charities and other service providers.

The types of information collected include:

• personal information. (Such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, language, gender, marital status) for all household members.
• special category characteristics. (Such as ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation).
• Information about your next of kin or other advocate/representative. (Such as name, contact details and relationship to you).
• Information about the referrer if different from the above, (Such as name, contact details and relationship to you).
• Health information. (Such as GP details, NHS number, medical diagnoses).
• Family information. (For example, any dependent children or other members of your household).
• Residential status (such as property ownership details, the type of tenancy you hold, your landlord’s contact details, details of any rental arrears and who those are with, details of any notices to quit or legal eviction notices including their expiry dates).
• Financial information. (Such as your income and expenditure to assess affordability, income source(s). For example, employment/benefits, next pay date(s), banking information).
• Information about other services involved and your involvement with them. (For example, recovery services, environmental health, benefits, mental health services).
• Your housing situation and the homelessness support that you require (such as whether you need emergency temporary accommodation or a visit by outreach services, details of other agencies that you may be working with and their views on the support you require, whether you are homeless or at risk of homelessness).

Why we collect and hold this information 

• To enable us to carry out the legal duties for which we are responsible as a Local Authority.
• To assess and gain a full understanding of your housing situation by gathering information from a wide variety of partner agencies to establish eligibility for accommodation.
• To establish if you have a priority need to be provided with emergency accommodation .
• To support you if eligible in obtaining long-term accommodation.
• To provide you with the information, advice and support you need.
• To work with charities and not-for-profit groups who have an interest in reducing. homelessness in the borough and to commission appropriate services.
• To help us assess the effectiveness of our services and to plan and improve future services.

Sharing your personal data

Your information may be obtained from and shared with, the following types of organisations/services as appropriate:

• Other Council Services. (For example, Environmental Health, Council Tax, Social Services) or groups directly involved with or working with an applicant. (For example, Substance Recovery Services, Counselling Services) to work jointly to resolve a homelessness situation.
• Together Housing/B-with-us/other social and private rented landlords, lettings agents and supported accommodation providers.
• Government agencies such as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
• Multi-Agency Meetings. (For example, MARACs, MAPPAs or MDTs) built around an applicant to share information across involved agencies in order to resolve your homelessness/housing situation or for us to help relieve another situation being faced. (For example Domestic Abuse, Ill Health and such.)
• Health services. (For example, GPs, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust)
• Other Local Authorities – We may refer a homelessness case to another authority if the client has a connection/duty owed by that authority
• Emergency services
• Crisis UK (in respect of their “Built for Zero” Project to end Homelessness)
• Commissioned service providers - Happy Days UK, Street Reach/Horton Housing and P3/YPASS, who provide services such as shelters, outreach and support.
• Local Hotels/B&Bs/Accommodation Partners.
• Utility companies, charities, furniture suppliers, etcetera.

We will only ever share relevant information about you with third parties where there is a legal basis for us to do so.

The lawful basis for the processing your data

We need to collect this information in order to meet our obligations under the following legislation (but not limited to): 

• Housing Act 1996.
• Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
• Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities 2018.

We process personal information under the following GDPR lawful bases:

• Article 6(1)(c) – for compliance with the legal and statutory duties the Council is subject to under legislation as above.
• Article 6(1)(d) – to protect your vital interests or those of another person.
• Article 6(1)(e) – for the performance of our public task.

Where the information we process is special category data, for example your health data, the additional bases for processing that we rely on are: 

• Article 9(2)(a) – Explicit consent.
• Article 9(2)(b) – Employment, social security or social protection (if authorised by law).
• Article 9(2)(c) – To protect your vital interests or those of another person where you are incapable of giving your consent.
• Article 9(2)(g) – Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law).
• Article 9(2)(h) – for the provision of Health or Social care.
• DPA 2018 Schedule 1 Part 1 – Health or Social care purposes.
• DPA 2018 Schedule 1 Part 2 – 8) Equality of opportunity or treatment, 18) safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk, 19) Safeguarding of economic well-being of certain individuals.

Retaining your personal information

Your personal information will be kept for a period of 7 years after the date of closure of your case and then will be securely destroyed.

Your rights

The GDPR provides the following rights for individuals. Not all rights are absolute and therefore will only apply in certain circumstances:

1. The right to be informed
2. The right of access
3. The right to rectification
4. The right to erasure
5. The right to restrict processing
6. The right to data portability
7. The right to object
8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

You also have the right to complain to the Data Protection Officer if you feel that your data has not been handled in accordance with the law. The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at information.management@calderdale.gov.uk

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk