Housing and Homelessness Service privacy notices - Print version

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Homelessness and Choice Based Lettings privacy notice

Why we need your personal information

We need your personal information so that we can provide you with advice and guidance in line with Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. The Homelessness Service will liaise with customers to understand the circumstances that have led to the threat of homelessness or resulted in homelessness, their housing needs and other requirements. This allows the service to determine which commissioned housing related services will need to work with individuals and families to provide or arrange the right advice and support to in line with the customer’s personal housing plan.

The Homefinder application form is used to determine the appropriate banding that maybe required for the allocation of accommodation. For Homefinder the information captured is shared with partner Housing Associations to be used as part of their role in allocating tenancies for accommodation they have. Officers in the Housing and Homelessness Service and partner Housing Associations have access to client data and documents stored on the Locata case management system.

We use this information to:

  • Provide you with necessary and appropriate services with a view to prevent or relieve your homelessness.
  • Make referrals to partner organisations who can provide specialist advice to support you in line with their personal housing plan. Consent will be required from the customer to share information with partner organisations.
  • Provide you with the appropriate priority bandings for the allocation of accommodation.
  • Provide Housing Associations with access to data to inform their decision making in relation to allocating tenancies.
  • Help develop and improve our services
  • Provide information to Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to meet reporting requirements under the legislation.

Who we share data with

As part of the homeless service, we will refer you to other organisations we work with so that they can give you additional support. We will need your permission to share your information with any of the following organisations, and this will be discussed at the initial interview and captured in the Locata Housing system. Possible partner organisations:

  • Salvation Army
  • Coventry Cyrenians
  • Emmaus
  • St Basils
  • YMCA
  • Commissioned Domestic Violence Services
  • Coventry Independent Advice Service
  • The Job Shop
  • Christians Against Poverty
  • Coventry Law Centre
  • Coventry Citizens Advice
  • Coventry Refuge and Migrant Centre
  • Carriers of Hope
  • Coventry Peace House
  • Change, Grow, Live
  • Open Hands
  • Coventry Food Bank
  • SPACES
  • Once we were soldiers
  • Coventry MIND
  • Coventry and Warwickshire Relate
  • Age UK
  • Coventry Irish Society
  • Private sector landlords with whom we are discharging duty
  • P3 Charity

We will also refer you to other Council services such as Early Help Services, Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, Through Care, Revenues and Benefits, Adult Social Care. We will share complete statistical information with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. For information gathered as part of the Homefinder Application this may be shared with partner Housing Associations:

  • Ashram Housing
  • Accord Housing
  • Asra Housing Group
  • Bromford Group
  • Circle Housing Association
  • Guinness Northern Counties
  • Midland Heart
  • Orbit housing
  • Stone Water Housing Association
  • Citizen Housing

How long will we keep your information?

Your personal information will be held for 6 years plus the current year.

What rights do I have?

Where we have asked for your consent to share your personal information with our partner agencies, you have the right to withdraw your consent. If you would like to withdraw this consent, please contact the Homelessness Service by emailing homelessness@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:nominationsadvice@coventry.gov.uk].

Where information has been passed to Central Government/DLUHC, it is not possible to recall this information.

Rough Sleeping and Complex Needs Services privacy notice

Coventry City Council complies with the Data Protection Act and the UK GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

This Privacy Notice explains how personal information is going to be used, what for, who it will be shared with and why.

Why we collect and use personal data about you

We use your personal information so that we can provide advice and guidance, assessments, services, support and safeguarding for you if you are rough sleeping and meet your needs if you are roofless or in unstable housing, it enables us to provide the help that you require as early as possible.

We collect personal information about you so that we can provide:

  • Services to, and monitoring of, services to you if you are currently rough sleeping, at risk of rough sleeping or have previously experienced rough sleeping.
  • Early intervention services to understand what support you need to identify the right service at the right time to support you and provide help.
  • Specialist services for you if you are rough sleeping and may be vulnerable or have higher levels of need.
  • Complete statistical returns to Government departments

We process personal data because it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations and perform our public duty.

What information do we collect about you?

  • Name
  • Contact details
  • Date of birth
  • Family details if relevant – for example marital status, siblings and/or children
  • Details about your occupation
  • Your lifestyle and social circumstance
  • Case File Information
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • NHS number and other identifiers
  • Health information including disability
  • Criminal convictions
  • Educational
  • Employment history
  • Family history and social relationships generally
  • Dealings with the Coventry City Council
  • Financial details if necessary

Who we share your personal data with

Dependent on what service we are providing to you we will share data with:

  • Salvation Army
  • Coventry Cyrenians
  • Emmaus
  • St Basils
  • YMCA
  • Coventry Domestic Violence and Abuse Support Services
  • Coventry Haven
  • Valley House
  • Coventry Independent Advice Service
  • The Job Shop
  • Christians Against Poverty
  • Coventry Law Centre
  • Coventry Citizens Advice
  • Coventry Refuge and Migrant Centre
  • Carriers of Hope
  • Coventry Peace House
  • Change, Grow, Live
  • Open Hands
  • Coventry Food Bank
  • SPACES
  • Once we were soldiers
  • Coventry MIND
  • Coventry and Warwickshire Relate
  • Age UK
  • Coventry Irish Society
  • Private sector landlords with whom we are discharging duty

As part of rough sleeping outreach service, we may refer you to the above organisations so that they can give you necessary support. We will not share your information with any of the above organisations without your consent.

There may be some circumstance in which we can share information without your specific consent, when it is reasonable and necessary to do so to fulfil our public tasks or it is otherwise in the substantial public interest to do so. We can share with:

  • Adult services within Coventry City Council
  • Other public bodies
  • NHS and other health agencies
  • District councils
  • Voluntary and charitable agencies providing services
  • Police
  • Courts and other judicial agencies
  • Probation
  • Youth Offending Team
  • Housing department and housing providers
  • Other central government agencies including government bodies responsible for providing funding for eligible services e.g. the Troubled Families Programme (payment by results)
  • Other public authorities
  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

We may also receive personal information about you from others:

Depending on the service we need to provide to you we may have information about you shared with us by:

  • Health agencies/professionals
  • Mental Health services
  • Probation Service
  • Police
  • Other Local Authorities
  • Family Members
  • Friends
  • Your employer
  • Housing department and housing providers

How long will we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as we need to, so we can give you the service you need, unless we must keep it for legal reasons. The time can be different depending on the service you have asked for/are provided with.

But your personal information could be held for 6 years plus the current year.

Where information has been passed to Central Government/ MHCLG, it is not possible to recall this information.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  • Ask to see the personal information we hold about you
  • Withdraw consent (see below) this only applies to the sharing of your personal information
  • Ask us to change information we hold about you if it is wrong
  • Ask us to delete the information we hold about you
  • Ask us to limit the way we use your personal Information
  • Ask for human intervention regarding decisions made about you by a computer
  • Data portability (have your data transferred to another Authority)
  • Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

To exercise any of these rights please contact the Rough Sleeping Co-ordinator and/or email nominationsandadvice@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:nominationsandadvice@coventry.gov.uk].

Withdrawal of consent to share your personal Information

Where personal data is processed on the basis of consent, you will have the right to withdraw that consent. However, Coventry City Council process personal data that it is necessary to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations and to enable us to perform tasks carried out in the public interest.

Complaints

You have the right to submit a complaint if you are unhappy with the way your request is handled or disagree with a decision made by the council regarding your data. In these circumstances you can contact the Data Protection Team (DPO) and request a review of the decision. dpoteam@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:dpoteam@coventry.gov.uk]

If you are not satisfied with any outcome from the DPO you may wish to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

Young people experiencing homelessness

If you are aged 16-24, are a single or a couple, and do not have children, you can access the Housing & Homelessness service by contacting the Coventry Youth Hub.

Telephone: 0121 269 1940 [tel:01212691940]

Coventry Homefinder privacy notice

Coventry City Council complies with the Data Protection Act and the GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

This privacy notice explains how personal information is going to be used, what for, who it will be shared with and why.

Locata currently has a contract with Coventry City Council to host the Web-based system that holds the information that applicants provide.

Why we collect and use Personal Data about you

We collect and hold personal information relating to Coventry Homefinder applications.

We use this information to:

  • Process and assess your Housing Register application
  • Share with Housing Associations who are part of Homefinder who may allocate you a property
  • Comply with the Housing Act 1996 for the allocation of social housing
  • To conduct appropriate checks (eg former tenancies)
  • Help us to develop and improve our services
  • Complete statistical returns to Government departments
  • The prevention and detection of crime

The legal basis for processing your personal information is ‘Public task’ (substantial public interest) - we process personal data of people who have made an application to the social housing register (Coventry Homefinder) because it is necessary to comply with the Housing Act 1996.

What information do we collect about you and your household?

In order to carry out these purposes we collect and obtain:

  • Your full name
  • Your Date of Birth
  • Your Contact details
  • Your National Insurance number
  • Your current and previous addresses for the past 5 years
  • Your current housing circumstances
  • Full names of those in your household (who will be moving with you and part of your application)
  • Date of Birth for those in your household (who will be moving with you and part of your application)
  • The National Insurance numbers of those in your household (who will be moving with you and part of your application)
  • Household circumstances relating to your housing need
  • Financial information relating to your financial position and that of other household members – this is used to assess whether you qualify to join the register and, where appropriate, if your housing need is related to the affordability of your current home.
  • Ethnicity and nationality – special category data (this information is requested but applicants have the option to choose ‘prefer not to say’).
  • Any disabilities as defined in the Equality Act 2010 – special category data
  • Criminal offence history
  • Details of any contact we have had with you, such as any correspondence and complaints

Who we share your Personal Data with

We will share data with:

Registered Providers of social housing who are part of the Coventry Homefinder partnership and let properties through Coventry Homefinder - in order to review your application (where appropriate) and for the allocation of social housing. These are:

 

  • Bromford Group
  • Citizen
  • Clarion
  • GreenSquareAccord
  • Midland Heart Housing Association
  • Nehemiah UCHA
  • Optivo
  • Orbit Heart of England Housing Association
  • Starley Housing Co-operative
  • Stonewater Limited.

In order to process your application and assess your housing need, we may share information with other organisations to make sure it is correct or ask other organisations to share information with us, in order to understand and confirm your housing, personal health or family situation. Where relevant, necessary and appropriate to your housing circumstances, this may include:

  • Your GP and/or other healthcare professionals involved in your care or the care of a household member.
  • Probation services.
  • Current and/or previous landlords.
  • Substance misuse or mental health services.
  • Social Services.
  • The Police.
  • Any agencies you have consented to complete the application on your behalf.
  • Other agencies, support services or voluntary sector organisations that you have indicated you engage with in relation to an issue which impacts on your housing need/application.

We will share data with the Cabinet Office (which is a government department) - for the purposes of a data matching exercise called the National Fraud Initiative. The purpose of the exercise is to detect fraud and error. The Council is legally required to participate in this exercise. More information on the National Fraud Initiative [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/11/strategies_plans_and_policies/473/data_matching_and_the_national_fraud_initiative].

There may be certain circumstances where we would share your personal data where we are required to do so by law, to safeguard public safety, and in risk of harm or emergency situations. Only the minimum information for the purpose will be shared.

How long will we keep your information?

We will only keep your personal information for as long as the law specifies or where the law does not specify this, for the length of time determined by our business requirements.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

  1. Ask to see the personal information we hold about you
  2. Ask us to change information we hold about you if it is wrong
  3. Ask us to delete the information we hold about you
  4. Ask us to limit the way we use your personal Information
  5. Ask for human intervention regarding decisions made about you by a computer (automated decisions)
  6. Data portability (have your data transferred to another Authority)
  7. Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

To exercise any of these rights please contact the Coventry Homefinder Team by emailing coventryhomefinder@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:coventryhomefinder@coventry.gov.uk]

Complaints

You have the right to submit a complaint if you are unhappy with the way your request is handled or disagree with a decision made by the council regarding your data. In these circumstances, you can contact the Data Protection Team (DPO) and request a review of the decision.

If you are not satisfied with any outcome from the DPO you may wish to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

Date of last review: August 2021

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