PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 56328/07) against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Sierra Leonean national, Ms Husenatu Bah (“the applicant”), on 23 November 2007.

The applicant was represented by Pierce Glynn Solicitors, a firm of lawyers practising in London. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr D. Walton, of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The applicant alleged that she had been a victim of a violation of Article 14 of the Convention, taken in conjunction with Article 8. On 1 December 2009 the Acting President of the Chamber decided to give notice of the application to the Government.

The Chamber having decided, after consulting the parties, that no hearing on the merits was required (Rule 59 § 3 in fine of the Rules of Court), the parties replied in writing to each other’s observations. In addition, third-party comments were received from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which had been given leave by the Acting President of the Chamber to intervene in the written procedure (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3). The respondent Government replied to those comments (Rule 44 § 6).

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.

The applicant arrived in the United Kingdom in 2000 as an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone. Although her asylum claim was refused, she was granted exceptional leave to remain and then, in 2005, indefinite leave to remain. After she obtained indefinite leave to remain, she applied to have her son Mohamed Saliou Jalloh, a Sierra Leonean national born in 1994, join her in the United Kingdom. Her son arrived in January 2007, with conditional leave to remain in the United Kingdom, the condition being that he must not have recourse to public funds. He is considered as being “subject to immigration control” within the meaning of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996, as is the applicant (see paragraph 12 below).

At the time of her son’s arrival in the United Kingdom, the applicant was renting a room in a private home. However, her landlord was unwilling to accommodate her son as well, and informed the applicant shortly after her son’s arrival that they would have to move out by 31 March 2007. The applicant applied to the London Borough of Southwark Council for assistance on 9 February 2007, on the basis that she had become unintentionally homeless. An unintentionally homeless person with a minor child would ordinarily qualify as being in priority need pursuant to section 189 of the Housing Act 1996 (see paragraph 13 below), and would thus be provided with suitable housing, usually within the locality. Those in priority need are considered to be a class of persons to whom reasonable preference must be given in the allocation of social housing. As there is a significant shortage of social housing in London, those in priority need would generally be placed in temporary accommodation until appropriate social housing became available. In the case of the applicant, however, as her son was subject to immigration control, he was disregarded by the Council in the determination of whether the applicant was in priority need, in accordance with section 185(4) of the Housing Act 1996. On 14 March 2007 the Council decided that the applicant was not therefore in priority need and not entitled to social housing.

The applicant requested a review of this decision, which was carried out by a senior officer, who reiterated that persons subject to immigration control are not eligible for housing assistance and that persons who are not eligible for housing assistance shall be disregarded when determining whether another person has a priority need for accommodation. As the applicant’s son was not eligible, the applicant did not have a priority need. Consideration was also given to the question of whether the applicant was vulnerable for any other reason; however, it was found that the applicant was not hindered in the performance of everyday tasks by any medical problems and that she was no less able to fend for herself than the average person. There was therefore no special reason to find that she was entitled to homelessness assistance due to vulnerability. On 24 May 2007 the original decision was upheld.

The Council assisted the applicant to find a private-sector tenancy in September 2007, which she accepted. The applicant and her son were not therefore at any point actually homeless. However, the private tenancy was more expensive than a social tenancy would have been, and was outside the Borough of Southwark and therefore far from the applicant’s previous employment and her son’s school. The applicant claimed that she had to give up her job after three months of commuting as she was unable to cope with the travel required, and that her son spent four hours per day travelling to and from school.

The applicant, who had remained on the waiting list for social housing in the Borough of Southwark, obtained an offer of a social tenancy of a one-bedroom flat in March 2009. She and her son therefore moved back to Southwark.