Hotel Fund guidelines

Project 17 will consider referrals from frontline organisations supporting

• families or individuals with no recourse to public funds
• left street homeless
• by a challengeable refusal of statutory support from a local authority under the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014

Project 17 can fund short periods of emergency accommodation whilst the local authority’s decision is challenged by way of judicial review. The fund should only be used as a last resort and where grounds for challenge have been identified and there is at least a 50% chance of success.

Normally up to three nights’ accommodation will be made available, or less if the statutory decision can be challenged more quickly.

Monitoring data will be collected from the referral organisation and stored for each case in which the fund is used. The referral organisation will obtain consent from the client for Project 17 to store their personal information, and for the referral organisation to write to the local authority at a later date to complain about the incident of poor practice. 

The referral organisation must agree to write to the local authority to raise the issue of poor practice, and request that Project 17 be reimbursed for their costs. Project 17 will make a template letter available.

When authorising use of the fund by a referral organisation, the following procedure should be followed:

1. The referral organisation will obtain consent from the client and submit a referral using the specified form to Project 17 before 5pm on a working day.
2. Project 17 will review the referral and check the prospects of success of a legal challenge are 50% or greater
3. The appropriate number of nights’ accommodation will be agreed
4. If the referral is accepted, the referral organisation will be informed, and advised to source accommodation. When sourcing accommodation the referral organisation should try to minimise cost where possible but bear in mind the particular needs of the client (e.g. travelling distance). It will normally be appropriate to keep the family in their local authority area to prevent issues around territorial responsibility arising. Please see below for guidelines on the cost of accommodation. If there are reasons why more expensive accommodation is required, Project 17 should be informed of these reasons and the Director/Adviser will consider whether to approve the payment.
5. Once accommodation has been identified, Project 17 will approve the booking.
6. Once the accommodation has been booked, the referral organisation will invoice Project 17 for the total cost. Receipts/booking confirmations must be provided with the invoice. Project 17 will pay the invoice within 28 days.
7. After the case is resolved, the referral organisation will write to the local authority using Project 17’s template letter, on their own headed paper or from their own organisational email. Any response will be forwarded to Project 17.
8. The referral organisation will also complete a monitoring questionnaire following the outcome of the case.

Guidelines for cost of accommodation

Under normal circumstances the approximate cost of one night’s accommodation would not exceed the following:

However, in most cases it is possible to secure cheaper accommodation and this should be done where possible. There may be special considerations which mean more costly accommodation is needed. If there are particular reasons why more costly accommodation is required, Project 17 should be informed of these reasons before accommodation is booked.