Will you qualify for help as a homeless person?

What help can you get?

If you are homeless, the help you will get from the council will depend on if you can meet the 'tests' set out below. If you don't meet all the tests then you might only get advice, or at best accommodation for 28 days.

Even when you meet all the tests you don't usually get a council or HA home straight away. The council will usually place you in a bed and breakfast hotel, hostel or other temporary accommodation. You will have to pay the rent for the temporary accommodation (using housing benefit if you qualify) and this will normally be very high (usually over £100 a week in London). You might then have to wait two years or more before you get an offer of a permanent flat.

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How do councils decide who to help?

The Homelessness Act 2002, and the Code of Guidance that goes with it, set out how councils should make decisions about who is homeless and in priority need and what help they have to offer. They are long documents, but if you want to look at them you can find them by clicking on www.housing.odpm.gov.uk.

In practice different councils interpret their responsibilities differently. Some are very strict about who they will help. All councils will check the information you give them very carefully so you need to be prepared to back up your claims. If you think your council is being over strict then you should get specialist help from your local citizen's advice bureau, or Housing Advice Centre. Details can be found by clicking on www.nacab.org.uk (Citizen's Advice Bureau). Housing Advice Centres in London can be found by clicking on www.homelesslondon.org.uk. You can also ring shelterline for free advice on 0808 800 4444.

Before deciding what help they will give you the council will check whether:

• you really are homeless (see below)
• you have priority needs
• you made yourself homeless deliberately
• you are eligible for help from them
• you have a local connection with their area.

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Are you homeless?

You should be considered to be homeless if you:

• have no accommodation anywhere in the world which you have a legal right to occupy (and which it is reasonable to expect you and your household to live in)
• have left your home and are unable to return to it because of a realistic threat of violence
• are living with friends or family but have been asked to leave
• have been served with a legal notice to quit by your landlord (some councils won't help you unless the case has gone to court and your landlord has been given a possession order)
• live in very short stay housing (like a night shelter or women's refuge) and only have a licence agreement
• live in a caravan or houseboat but have nowhere to legally site it and live in it.

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Do you have priority needs?

You should be considered to be in priority need if you:

• have children who normally live with you, or are pregnant
• are homeless due to flood, fire or other disaster
• are vulnerable because you:
  • are over 65
  • are suffering from mental ill health
  • have a physical disability
  • have a learning disability
  • have left your accommodation to escape violence
  • have left an institution (e.g prison or army)
  • have been a victim or abuse, violence or harassment
  • are 16-17 years old
  • are 18-21 years old and have been 'looked after' by a local authority for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14

You won't be considered vulnerable just because you fall into one of the categories above. For instance councils won't normally consider all people over 65 to be vulnerable. They will first need to be convinced that because of your age you are less able to get housing yourself and therefore need their help. Getting a social worker, GP or other professional to back up your case can help.

If you're not in priority need then the council only has to give you advice.

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Have you made yourself homeless deliberately?

A council should only decide that you are intentionally homeless if you deliberately did something (like give up a tenancy when you had a right to continue living somewhere), or deliberately didn't do something (like not paying your mortgage even though you had the money to do so).

If the council decides that you are intentionally homeless then it only needs to offer you accommodation for a short period (usually 28 days).

If you get refused on these grounds, but are a young person under 21, then you might be able to get help from the social services department of the council. Whether you get help from them will depend on:

• your age
• whether or not you've ever been in care
• whether you are 'vulnerable' in some way (for instance because you have a mental health problem or a physical or mental disability).

If social services do decide to help you it is likely that they'll arrange supported accommodation for you rather than an independent council or HA tenancy. Go to the Social Services Department of your local council and ask to see the Duty Officer for Children and Families. If you live outside London this may be in the County Council rather than the District Council to which you applied for housing.

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Do you qualify for help from the council?

You might not be eligible for help from your council if you are a certain category of asylum seeker or have not lived in the UK continually over the last 5 years (even if you are a UK citizen). If you think that the council will try and say that you aren't eligible for one of these reasons then you might want to get specialist help as this is a very complicated area.

If you get refused on these grounds but are under 21 then you might be able to get help from social services department of the council (see the previous section for details).

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Do you have a local connection?

The council you are applying to will check that you have a connection with their area, and that they are the right council for you to be applying to. A local connection might be:

• the fact that you have lived there for at least the last 6 months or 3 of the last five years
• that you are permanently employed in their area
• that you have a close family connection with someone (like a mother, brother etc) who has lived in their area for at least five years
• that you need to live there to escape violence or harassment

If the council thinks that you have a closer connection with another council area then they can ask you to apply to that council instead. Living in an area whilst you were in the forces, or in hospital or prison is not enough to establish a local connection.

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How do I apply?

Most councils have a Homeless Persons Unit that deals with all applications. You can find out where this is in the area you live in by clicking on www.homelesslondon.org.uk or from your council's website which can be found by clicking on www.oultwood.com/localgov/uk. More information on homelessness can be found by clicking on www.shelter.org.uk.

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