Exeter City Council is turning away rough sleepers from its Winter Shelter if they cannot prove a strong local link to the city, it has been revealed.

For many that means those travelling long distances to access the city's well-regarded support and provision are forced to continue sleeping outdoors.

It is claimed that, instead, the council begins arrangements to contact their home town or city and send them back to where they're from, with a one-way ticket on public transport.

A light has been shone on the process in a damning personal blog titled 'Road To Nowhere?' published by Simon Bowkett, CEO of Co Lab Exeter.

It's a shock move, as he's the chief of a third-party hub of services in the city helping those suffering with issues linked to homelessness or addiction. He stresses the personal blog is completely separate to the hub's work.

He has revealed the strict criteria at the council's disposal, dubbed the 'local connection criteria'.

However the city council has robustly defended its use of the criteria, and says it makes every effort to support homeless people in Exeter - regardless of where they are from.

Below, the council's criteria. Would YOU pass it?

The criteria to use Exeter's winter night shelter

  • You have lived in Exeter for at least six out of the last 12 months
  • You have lived in Exeter for at least three out of the last five years

(Time spent in prison doesn't count for the above)

  • You are working full-time or are self-employed in the council area
  • If any of the following family members have lived in a council area for at least five years: Parents, Adult Children, Brothers and Sisters

Exeter's 26-bed winter shelter, named The Junction, sits in Magdalen Street car park and - alongside offering a roof over the heads of rough sleepers - it engages them with services and support to help bring them off the streets permanently.

In late December 2018, figures emerged naming Exeter as one of the top six councils 'reconnecting' homeless people to their original towns and cities alongside large councils such as Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford, Leicester and Blackpool.

That means Exeter City Council bought more than 100 tickets since 2015 to send rough sleepers to a place where they were deemed to have a 'local connection'.

Mr Bowkett explains: "If – despite Exeter having an emergency winter shelter open for homeless people – you have still encountered a lot of people bedded down on our streets, then chances are you are looking at people that have come to Exeter from surrounding districts, and that are not allowed to stay in Exeter council-funded provision as a result."

In one striking example of the criteria in action, Mr Bowkett describes encountering a "vulnerable" young woman who had arrived from Sussex.

"Almost monosyllabic in conversation," he explains, "and rarely making eye contact, she presented for all the world as someone who had experienced recent trauma.

Simon Bowkett
Simon Bowkett

"She was not allowed to access the nightshelter, nor any council-funded provision. Her only “official” offer was a ticket back to Sussex – but she made it clear – in her distressed state – she could not return there."

He uses it as an example of a flaw in the reconnection scheme - as some sufferers of domestic violence or similar, harrowing, trauma may not be comfortable to disclose it before being 'reconnected' back to the area they had been fleeing.

Another highlighted flaw with the system is highlighted by another individual, "Ben", who arrived in Exeter because the shame of sleeping rough in familiar surroundings would be too great to bear.

Bowkett quotes "Ben" as saying: I tried to stay in [town], I mean, I wanted to. Exeter seemed kind of scary, I don’t really know anyone here.

"But I was kipping on the streets back home, and it was like everyone that walked by or stepped over me knew me, and could see how shit things had got for me.

"An old neighbour of my mum, or a woman that was a teaching assistant at the school I went to, they could all see how my life had turned out. Exeter can be a scary place, but I’m anonymous here, know what I mean?”

A letter sent to a 'client' of CoLab Services

You can read the entire blog post here. Below is Exeter City Council's lengthy response to the insight shared by Mr Bowkett.

Why were the strict 'local link' rules brought in by the council?

The council responds:

There are two reasons why local connection rules have been applied to the winter shelter:

1) To ensure that there is sufficient availability for street homeless people already based in Exeter. Numbers in previous and recent street homeless counts have exceeded the capacity of the shelter; and although we know individuals wouldn’t want to access it, or will be supported into other forms of temporary or supported accommodation, it quickly became apparent in the shelter’s first weeks that there was sufficient demand for it that it needed to be reserved for people with a local connection here.

2) Although this might initially sound counter-intuitive, this decision was also taken for the benefit of people without a local connection to Exeter, who seemed to be newly drawn to Exeter because they had heard about the new shelter. Although of course a shelter is beneficial in the immediate term, moving to an area without local connection is generally not beneficial to the individual: as most areas, Devon County Council funds supported housing for people with local connection only, and Devon Homechoice (despite having one of the most liberal policies in the country) requires people to have a local connection of at least six months to apply for any banding other than the lowest (unless someone has no local connection anywhere, or is at risk of violence or abuse in the area where there is connection). Other exceptions can apply.

City council homelessness decisions and placements are based on the government’s Code of Guidance which clearly states that people with no local connection to any area, or who are at risk of violence in the area where they do have connection, or who require specialist local medical treatment, for example, should not be excluded because of lack of normal local connection assessments.

Whilst the winter shelter is a service provided in addition to statutory duties, we follow the same guidance as best practice in extending local connection parameters to these types of ‘special circumstance’.

poll loading

Should the council be turning away rough sleepers or letting them in?

Regarding the point about individuals potentially not divulging that they are fleeing (domestic) violence or threats of, and therefore should be in ‘special circumstance’ category but not picked up: clearly we cannot comment on numbers of people who we don’t know about, but can confirm that a large number of people do disclose to us threats of violence (locally or in other areas), including the most extreme cases where they are under witness protection schemes.

We have procedures to anonymise personal details, staff have training on domestic abuse, and we work closely with specialist agencies as appropriate.

Rough sleepers outside the RAMM on Tuesday, February 19

It is also important to note that in cases where vulnerable individuals are referred back to other councils through the process set out by the Housing Reduction Act, they are able to stay in the winter shelter for the period it takes for the other council (where there is local connection) to consider and accept that duty.

In cases where that referral is not accepted, individuals are permitted to stay in the shelter (or until the point where that decision has been successfully challenged).

Does ECC think that single travel fares work and is it true that despite best intentions, the 'one way ticket' system is not stringent in organising services and accommodation on the other end?

The council responds:

Neither ECC, or its commissioned services, ever simply give individuals travel fares (along the lines of ‘Deflecting Reconnection’ in the blog piece).

Rather, we facilitate planned reconnections, generally by Homeless Reduction Act Section 198 referrals, or through the homeless outreach team’s direct contact with the second local authority or where we know that the individual has accommodation that they can return to.

The living area inside The Junction

In both cases, only when an appointment time has been booked with the council of local connection’s housing options team will the individual be supported to travel. (Some councils no longer operate appointments and only have duty systems: in these cases travel will only be arranged when, following conversations, there is clear understanding from the other council that the individual will be seen, with relevant information and referring contact details shared).

It is worth stressing that very often individuals or families want to be reconnected to family or friends in original areas; and when this is not the case, and are referred to second councils, they understand that this is in their best interest. As far as possible, we then try to facilitate travel to make it as easy as possible for people to travel.

Recently, for example, an ECC housing options officer accompanied a family to the railway station, helping move luggage, and speaking with the train driver to ensure that they were assisted with their luggage at the other end: this family wanted to return to the area of local connection.

It is also important to note that people are not put on to transport if they would arrive after the destination council’s opening time (unless a plan was agreed that temporary accommodation would be in place on arrival pending an appointment the following day).

With regard to the ‘proper reconnection’ referred to in the blog, as the author says, it is not generally feasible for an officer to accompany clients to other parts of the country, given pressure on services. We are not aware of any authority or agency that is able to do this.

Picking up on other points quoted, it is factually inaccurate that the city council has no duty if there is no local connection.

Rough sleepers in Sidwell Street Exeter

Since the introduction of the Homeless Reduction Act in April 2018, whenever someone who is already homeless approaches the council, then we will have a ‘relief duty’.

This means that for a minimum of 56 days we will have a duty to work with that person to relieve their homelessness. We will also first need to draw up and agree a ‘personal housing plan’ with that individual, which means agreeing the actions that both the council and the person must do, in order to ensure that they have somewhere suitable to live.

A relief duty can only be ended in one of the ways specified by law and when someone has no local connection, but does have a connection to another area where they can safely return, then (after having regard to all of the facts of the individual case), we may make a formal referral to that local authority.

After this they have 14 days in which they should make a decision, after which the duty transfers to them. When this happens the person concerned has a statutory right to seek a formal review of the decision to accept them by the other local authority.