H-CLIC forms now collecting data on homelessness among Veterans

Since April 2018, as part of 2017’s Homelessness Reduction Act, Local Authorities in the UK have been collecting information on homelessness. A data collection system known as Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (or H-CLIC) records the details of every homelessness application a Local Authority receives.

In Spring 2018 the Cobseo Housing Cluster, a confederation of charities that provide Veteran-specific accommodation, launched a Call To Action at the House of Lords to end homelessness within the Veterans community. In it, the Cluster urged that Local Authorities are mandated to also ask people seeking housing whether they have served in the Armed Forces, and if they have, to take action to ensure their housing needs are addressed.

The call to Action specifically called for: ‘The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that the H-CLIC form which records homelessness data from Local Authorities asks for data on Veterans. This would mean that every Local Authority proactively identifies Veterans coming through their doors.’

We are very pleased that from December 2018 Local Authorities have started to include Veterans as a distinct category in their housing returns to central government. This is a major step forward and, if the data are analysed effectively, will help us prevent unnecessary homelessness in the future.

Find out more about the work of the Cobseo Housing Cluster to bring homelessness among Veterans as close to zero as possible: https://www.cobseo.org.uk/clusters/housing/