Homeless?
What is homelessness?
Homelessness means not having a home and you don't have to be sleeping on the streets to be classed as homeless.
You maybe classed as homeless if you are:
If you think you could be classed as homeless, please contact your local councils housing advice team.
What to do in an emergency
Your local council’s housing advice team should be able to advise you on your best options. However, if you are in a crisis situation and need help immediately, the following there are also agencies that may be able to help:
- Shelter's free national helpline (homelessness and general housing advice).
- Shelter advice centre’s (specialist advice about housing issues, help with disability/care needs, debt problems and welfare benefits).
- Citizens Advice (general advice about most issues)
- Social services (help for families with children, young people, older people and some people with health problems).
- Women's Aid (advice for women experiencing domestic abuse from a partner).
- Local police (advice in emergency situations, eg if you are facing violence).
- Local advice agencies (general or specialist advice).
Shelter's website gives further information to homeless people, including your rights and what you can expect.
General advice
You can get free specialist advice and assistance if you are a private tenant threatened with eviction or are homeless
Your local authority can stop you becoming homeless by:
- Negotiate with landlords to extend tenancies and pay off arrears.
- Give legal advice on tenancy rights.
- Advice on recovery of damage deposits.
- Use various financial schemes to provide housing solutions.
- Explain and refer to various schemes that we work with to provide housing solutions.
- Work closely with support agencies and make referrals.
- Explain possession proceedings and remedies.
- Illegal eviction.
- Refer to private sector housing if there are issues of disrepair.