How to get Emergency Housing Assistance
Your council must help if you’re legally homeless, but how much depends on your eligibility, your level of need and if your homelessness is your fault. So, how to get emergency housing assistance?
- If you have no legal right to live in accommodation anywhere in the world, click here.
- If your landlord has locked you out and you cannot get into your home, click here.
- If you are at risk of violence and you cannot stay in your home, click here.
- If you are forced to live apart from your family or people you normally live with because there is no suitable accommodation for you, click here.
- If you are living in poor conditions such as overcrowding, click here.
- if you are threatened with homelessness or likely to be homeless within the next 8 weeks or received a section 21 notice from your landlord, click here.
- If you are made homeless following a fire or flood in your home, your first point of contact should be your local authority.
- Use your local council finder to find your local council’s website or use Shelter’s directory to find details of your local council’s housing department.
- If you’ve lived abroad in the last 2 years, the council will decide if you’re habitually resident. Click here for more information.
- For housing advice during COVID 19, click here.
Tenants and Landlords
Now that we are about to go into lockdown2, if you are a tenant or landlord, you can find advice regarding evictions and being asked to leave here.
Bailiffs have been asked not to carry out evictions where local lockdown restrictions are in place. This is likely to apply during the national lockdown.
The government has also said that there will be a temporary pause on evictions between 11 December and 11 January 2021. For more information, click here.
Follow our guide:
- Contact your local authority/council.
- Your local council will give you advice and information on your situation and may be able to help you if you are homeless or about to become homeless.
- You will be classed in a specific category depending on whether you are a vulnerable person or you may have children under the age of 16 or 19 (if in full-time education).
- The council will make a decision as to whether you qualify for assistance.
- If you qualify, you could be placed in a hostel or hotel (bed and breakfast) with basic facilities until a council property becomes available.
- If you do not qualify, you should ask for a review to challenge the decision within 21 days if you think the decision is wrong.
We hope you found our how to get emergency housing assistance helpful.
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