I need to move home

If you need to move home due to your home being unsuitable for your needs, or being asked to leave please contact the homeless prevention service by filling in a homelessness prevention service request form or ringing us as soon as possible at 01472 326296 (option 1) as soon as you are homeless or threatened with homelessness.

The homeless team can help you to stay in your home, or if this is not possible, they will help you to find another home. You may have to go into temporary accommodation while we help you to find another home, this may be a local guesthouse. Sometimes, we can avoid the use of temporary accommodation, but only if you contact the team as soon as possible.

Home is unsuitable due to health

We might be able to help you to apply for a disabled facilities grant. If this isn’t suitable we can help you to apply for social housing and private rented accommodation.

If you need help to prevent you from becoming homeless, please complete our service request form as early as possible.

Homelessness prevention service request

Left the armed forces

You may be a ‘priority need’ for temporary accommodation, however, however it depends on certain circumstances. We will arrange an interview to talk about your options.

Young person leaving care

If you are a care leaver you have a right to homelessness prevention help if:

you have been in local authority care for 13 weeks since the age of 14
some of that time was whilst you were 16 or 17
and you are now aged 18 to 21 (or in some circumstances up to the age of 25)

If you are under 18, the Council’s Children’s Services must help with your housing, education, training and finances. When you are ready to move on into independent living, your The Children Looked After and New Futures worker will talk to you about housing options and will refer you to the Homelessness Prevention service.

At an interview, we will talk about the help available to you, and a personal housing plan agreed for you to remain where you are, or to find somewhere new to live in social, private or supported housing. You can have someone with you to support you if you feel this would help.

We may provide you with temporary accommodation which is likely to be in a supported housing project. We will work with you and your The Children Looked After and New Futures worker to find a fix to your housing issues.

If you need help preventing your homelessness please fill in the service request form as early as possible.

Asked to leave by friends or family

If you are asked to leave where you are staying by your friends of family, please contact the homeless team using the homeless prevention service request form as soon as possible.

The homeless team can talk to your family or friends on your behalf or they can offer mediation to help resolve the issues between you.

If the issues cannot be resolved, the homeless team will help you to look into alternative housing options, these may be temporary accommodation, flat shares, or privately rented accommodation.

If you have become homeless, the homeless team will need to involve children’s social services so they can look at your situation, even if you have no support needs and have lived independently.
The homeless team will aim to resolve things with your family or friends, however, we will only do so if it is safe for you to return to the home.
Please fill in the homeless prevention service request form as soon as possible so we can help you arrange alternative housing if it is needed.

If you’re under 35, you will be required to consider shared housing options due to affordability, we can discuss suitable options with you once a service referral form has been completed.

Doorstep – If you’re aged between 16 and 25, Doorstep have supported and non-supported accommodation available. When applying you may want to ask a professional to complete a gateway referral for you, alternatively you a drop in is available Monday to Friday 1pm to 4pm.
Private renting – You can try searching on Rightmove for available properties, Care Rent is a charitable organisation who work with private landlords or looking on social media, notice boards or shop window displays.
Social housing –Application for social housing is available through Home Choice Linc.

Types of support available to help pay your rent or mortgage

If you’re having trouble with your landlord because of delayed benefit payments, we can help you resolve this issue.

If you’re struggling to pay your rent we can help with by filling in an application for housing benefit or Universal Credit. If there is a gap between receiving a payment for housing benefit or universal credit and your rent is due, there is a discretionary housing payment which we can support you in applying for.

Sometimes rent or mortgage arrears have been caused by a temporary issue, we can help you talk with your landlord or mortgage company to come up with an agreed plan to re-pay the arrears. Support will be given for budgeting and a scheme is available for homeowners to have breathing space to get over the temporary period. We can also help with filling in court defence forms and being with you in court if necessary.

If you still require assistance in preventing your homelessness, please fill in our service request form as early as possible.

It aims to help those in mortgage difficulties by offering interest free loans of up to £15,000. These loans must be repaid in full at the end of a three year period and should only be considered if difficulties in meeting mortgage repayments are likely to be short term.

To qualify for this scheme:

repayments for the loan and mortgage must be sustainable
mortgage arrears must be due to a change of circumstances, e.g. redundancy.
maximum value of borrowing (including the loan) cannot exceed 90% of the value of the property.

Left hospital or a care setting

If you are or will be homeless after being discharged from the hospital due to your current home being unsuitable or having no place to stay, you should let the hospital staff know as soon as possible.

The hospital staff must refer you to the homeless prevention service. They will interview you, and speak with the hospital discharge team to plan the best course of action for your housing.

Been discharged from prison

The homeless team may be able to help you find somewhere to stay on your release if you are a “priority need” candidate. They will assess you on an individual basis to assess your need level.