Information about English local authorities’ actions under the homelessness legislation (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected quarterly at local authority level. Districts within North Yorkshire are Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby. In addition, information is provided for the unitary authority of York. Information is not collected at constituency level, and the Vale of York constituency lies within Hambleton, Harrogate and York.
Data collected includes the number of households accepted by local housing authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore owed a main homelessness duty (to secure that suitable accommodation is available). If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority must secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available.
A summary table which includes the total number of households accepted as owed a main homelessness duty in each year between 1997-98 and 2007-08, for each local authority is available in the Library. An extract showing data for the local authorities within North Yorkshire is given as follows:
Local authority 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Craven — — — 43 27 — 42 29 23 27 30 Hambleton 26 24 18 50 65 101 103 100 79 76 65 Harrogate 127 155 153 200 225 238 263 313 142 140 135 Richmondshire 39 — 20 45 62 134 113 131 — 76 106 Ryedale 24 31 32 26 38 47 51 64 61 38 36 Scarborough 185 218 185 223 237 234 304 293 208 200 157 Selby 94 77 59 62 95 151 144 — 96 94 76 York 280 — 282 499 418 409 460 424 414 213 258 ‘—’ Denotes data not reported. Source: CLG P1E Homelessness returns (quarterly)