Homelessness

This page contains guidance on prevention of homelessness and homeless legislation
Housing Options Advice Centre
Housing Options Advice Centre

Homeless or threatened with homelessness?

Who do I need to contact?

If you are homeless or think you might become homeless in the near future, you should contact us for advice and information.

If possible, please telephone first to make an appointment. We will ask you to bring relevant documents to the appointment. These will help us decide on your case more quickly.

If you are made homeless outside our opening times, you can telephone our Emergency Out of Hours Service on 01942 828777.

What Documents will I need to bring?

If you have arranged an interview or intend to drop-in because you are homeless you may need to bring several of the following documents to support your application. You will be advised when you contact us which ones will be relevant to your particular case.

  • Birth Certificates for your entire household (especially children)
  • Passports
  • Photo ID cards
  • Evidence of household income
  • Home Office letter showing your eligibility to remain in the UK or other documentation showing your status to remain in the UK
  • Benefits entitlement, eg., Child Benefit, Incapacity Benefit (books or bank statements showing the relevant payments)
  • Proof of pregnancy (this must be the blue book issued at your anti-natal clinic or a letter from your GP showing your name, date of birth and stating that you are pregnant and the expected date of confinement)
  • A copy of any current tenancy agreement
  • A copy of any Notice to Quit your accommodation
  • Bank Statements and Bills etc if you are claiming debt problems/bankruptcy as the reason for homelessness
  • Crime reference numbers or contact details of relevant individuals if you are claiming to be fleeing violence (domestic or otherwise)
  • Medical evidence of a claimed priority need on medical grounds (this may be a copy prescription/list of prescription medication or contact details of a GP, CPN or other medical practitioner

You may have priority need on a mobility basis and you may need to provide professional contact details so that we can establish how your mobility will be affected in respect of housing.

What happens next?

Prevention of Homelessness

You will be allocated a Housing Advisor who specialises in the prevention of homelessness. Your Advisor will try to keep you in your current accommodation, if it is reasonable for you to remain there. This may involve liaising with your Landlord or Mortgage Lender, making an appointment for you to receive debt advice to help you to afford to remain in your home, or negotiating with friends and family to prevent you from becoming homeless. If it is felt that we are unable to prevent you from becoming homeless your case may be passed to the Homeless Investigation Team so that further assistance can be provided to you.

Homeless Presentations

The Homeless Investigation team investigate homeless presentations on behalf of the Local Authority under Part VII of the 1996 Housing Act (as amended by the Housing Act 2002) (taking into account broader corporate responsibilities under related legislation, policy and guidance).

The Homeless Investigation team look at each individuals circumstances to determine the following:

Are you Eligible?

The Homeless Investigation team will need proof that you are eligible for assistance. You will need to provide proof of your Nationality and your current status within the UK. Examples of proof can be your birth certificate, passport or workers registration documents. Your Housing Advisor will advise you of what specific proof they require depending on your circumstances.

Are you Homeless?

You may be treated as homeless by the Council if :

  • you are homeless or threatened with homelessness within 28 days
  • there is nowhere that you and your family can stay together; or
  • you no longer have a legal right to stay in your home; or
  • you have somewhere to live but cannot gain entry to it; or
  • you are at risk of violence from someone who is living in your home; or
  • your home is a caravan or boat and you have nowhere to legally place it and live in it; or
  • you have a home in which it is not reasonable for you to live, when compared with the housing conditions of other people living in the area.

To qualify for a permanent home, you should also have a priority need, be unintentionally homeless and have a local connection. This is explained below.

Do you have a priority need?

You may have a priority need if you:

  • are pregnant
  • you have a dependent child aged 16 years or under, or aged 17 to 18 and still at school
  • you are 16 or 17 years
  • vulnerable as a result of age or a physical or mental disability
  • homeless due to a fire, flood or similar disaster
  • forced to leave home because of violence or abuse, and more at risk than most people.

The above list is a guide only. There may be other circumstances in which you could have a priority need.


If you are accepted as homeless and have a priority need, then in most cases the Council must find you somewhere to stay until they have concluded their investigation.

Are you Intentionally Homeless?

If, for example, you have become homeless because you did not pay your rent or mortgage and you could afford to do so; or, if you have taken on debt in the knowledge that you could not afford the repayments without losing your home, you could be considered ‘intentionally homeless'. This means that you have deliberately done something, or not done something, which causes you to be homeless. If you are found to be intentionally homeless, the Council cannot house you permanently even if you have children. We can only help for a short while and advise you where to go to find somewhere to live.

Do you have a Local Connection?

Generally, the Council will only house you if you or a member of your household have a local connection with the area. You may have a local connection if:

  • you have lived here for 6 out of the last 12 months, or 3 out of the last 5 years; or
  • you have permanent work in the area; or
  • your close relatives, such as mum, dad, brother or sister, have lived here for the past 5 years; or
  • you have very special reasons why you must live in the area.

If you have no local connection, we will refer you to another area where you have connections, if it is safe for you to go there.

If you have no connection with any area, we will house you if it is decided we have a duty under current homelessness legislation to do so.

Your Housing Advisor will be your point of contact throughout your application and will pass your case to a senior officer for a final decision on your application once all enquiries are complete. If you fail to respond to a request for information or your Housing Advisor loses contact with you then it may be deemed that you wish to withdraw your application by your conduct. It is important therefore that you comply with your Housing Advisor's requests for information from you.

If, after carrying out our enquiries the senior officer decides that you are not owed a duty under the current housing legislation, due to you being either intentionally homeless, not homeless, non-priority or ineligible, then you have the right to request a review of that decision within 21 days of your decision letter. All reviews of homelessness decisions are undertaken by an independent officer who is senior to the officer who made the decision and who was not connected with the original decision.

If, after carrying out our enquiries, we are able to house you, you will be offered a home with enough bed-spaces for your household. All accommodation is let on the basis of the bed-spaces it is deemed to have, not on the number of rooms.

Your allocation will be calculated on the following basis:
  • Single people will be entitled to a bedsit or one bedroom flat
  • Couples are entitled to one bedroom
  • Adults and people over 16 are entitled to a bedroom each

Two children of the same sex under the age of 16 would normally be expected to share a bedroom - there is a common misconception that there is law stating that it is illegal for children of opposite sexes to share a bedroom - If, however both children are nearing 16 and are of opposite sexes it may be that you will be offered a property with a bedroom for each.