People living in council homes are being asked to give their views on how Brighton and Hove City Council deals with hate incidents.
A draft policy is going before tenant and leaseholder representatives for feedback at four housing management panels in the coming few weeks as part of a consultation.
New regulations for social housing, which council homes and housing associations, took effect in April, meaning that the council has to have a policy on dealing with hate incidents.
These include people treating someone differently because of their race, religion, gender or gender identity, disability or sexuality.
Hate incidents include behaviour such as name-calling and sending offensive letters or emails as well as criminal behaviour such as threats, intimidation, violence and criminal damage.
A report to the council’s housing management panels mentions “mate crime” – when someone befriends a vulnerable person and takes advantage of them.
This can lead to cuckooing where criminal gangs take over a person’s home and use it for their illegal activities.
The draft policy proposes that an official should meet someone who reports a hate incident within two days.
The draft policy said: “During the first meeting, we will carry out an initial assessment, taking into consideration the needs of the victim to ensure that any action is victim-led.
“We will advise as necessary if another service needs to take the lead such as Sussex Police or a housing association.
“We will let the victim know what action we will be taking and indicate how long we believe this will take.
“We will keep victims up to date with our actions and check in on their welfare using their preferred method of contact and agreed frequency of contact, eg, once a week or fortnightly. We will do this until the case is closed.
“We will ensure all victims have access to a copy of the hate incident policy and we will signpost to local support and advice services where appropriate.
“We will make statutory safeguarding referrals where necessary, particularly for child victims. We will make residents aware of the anti-social behaviour case review, formerly known as Community Trigger.”
The report said that the council would support people making a complaint and witnesses by offering a single point of contact, usually a housing manager, and would provide information about support organisations.
The draft policy report said: “We are committed to ensuring that victims can remain in their home whenever possible.
“However, in exceptional circumstances and when the victim is at risk of serious physical harm and we are unable to resolve the situation in other ways, we may offer emergency accommodation and work with the victim to explore longer-term housing options.
“In very exceptional cases, this may result in a priority transfer in accordance with the allocations policy.
“Where necessary, we will work with the person responsible for the hate behaviour to identify support needs which may address the underlying causes of their behaviour.
“This may include reasons such as drug or alcohol addiction, mental health issues or support with parenting.”
Council tenants and leaseholders can report hate incidents by calling 01273 293030 or emailing Housing.CustomerServices@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
Homeowners and people living in private rented housing can report hate incidents to the council’s community safety team by calling 01273 292735 or emailing CommunitySafety.Casework@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
If a crime is taking place, people are advised to call 999. For less urgent incidents, people can call the police on 111 or report the incident online.
A public consultation is due to start on the council’s website next Monday (9 September).
Once the public consultation is completed, the policy is expected to be adopted from next summer when it will sit alongside the council’s existing anti-social behaviour policy.
Anti-social behaviour has been brought up separately by tenant and leaseholder representatives for discussion at the upcoming housing panel meetings where reps discuss housing matters with councillors and officials.
The housing panel meetings are next Tuesday (10 September) for the north area, Wednesday 11 September for the east, Tuesday 17 September for central Brighton and Wednesday 18 September for Hove and Portslade.
Cuckooing in council properties is a very serious matter that demands very serious attention and intervention. It must stop. Please.
Agreed on the severity as it takes advantage of our most vulnerable residents and exploits them.
Perhaps if council property was better maintained then people would be less inclined to be aggressive towards each other ? The broken window syndrome is well documented. The whole town looks unloved and dilapidated, no wonder people are turning on each other.
Going back to the committee system would reduce Council hate.
Instead they have wasted OUR money on a Chairman Mao system no one voted for.
I completely disagree. It will have no tangable difference on public perception.