56 days

How do people read this:

Local authorities have a legal duty to provide homeless people or people at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days with advice and help to find a new home

Does that mean the proceding 56 days before the eviction date (the date that i have asked for possession on the Section 21), or in the following 56 days?

I would have thought the former. My tenant’s council have informed her it is the later..