I'm at risk of being or already am homeless

The council's housing options service

If you are homeless or worried about becoming homeless we can help and support you. The Council has a range of legal duties to help people. This may involve giving advice and information or finding longer term housing.

You should be aware that emergency accommodation and social housing is not always available to people facing homelessness, particularly single people. We will encourage you to try and stay with family and friends in the short term whilst looking for private rented accommodation, which is the quickest way to find a new home in Hastings.

What should I do?

To find out if you are able to get support from the council you will need to:

Step 1:

• Call the council's Community Contact Centre on 01424 451100, to be triaged and book an appointment. See our Phone Service hours.

Step 2:

• We will need to complete our Housing Options Assessment.

You will be asked for information about you and who lives with you so we can understand your housing situation. If we can help, you will be able to book an appointment with a housing officer.

Step 3:

• Once an appointment has been booked, your will be asked for:
  (a) Your 5 year address history for you and your partner if you have one
  (b) Information about any medical conditions that you or anyone else in your household may have
  (c) Your income and expenses for your household
  (d) More information about you and anyone else in your household that needs our help, such as partner and children.
  

When providing information, please allow up to 30 minutes.

Step 4:

• At time of your appointment, a housing officer will call you on the number that you gave when your appointment was made. Your appointment will last up to 90 minutes.

The housing officer will then work with you during the appointment to produce a personalised housing plan (PHP) to reduce your risk of becoming homeless and give you advice and guidance on your housing situation.

If you can't attend this appointment, please call the council on 01424 451100 to rearrange it.

Please be aware that if you do not attend your booked appointment without letting us know your case will be closed. You will have to make a new application if you still feel that you need our support.

If you are in immediate danger, please contact:

• Police on 999, or you can also use 101 to give information to the police or make an enquiry.
• Refuge on 0808 2000 247 (24 hour Freephone National Domestic Violence Helpline). Refuge's website also contains lots of useful information on domestic violence. You can find further advice about domestic violence on our website.

If you need emergency accommodation outside of office hours, please call 01424 451999.

Referring someone from another agency?

Statutory agencies can refer someone who is homeless or considered to be at risk of homelessness to us for assistance under the Duty to Refer requirements under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. Further information on this can be found on our Duty to Refer webpage.

If you or someone you know is rough sleeping

There are local services available for people who are rough sleeping or sofa surfing. You can find out more about these services by reading our Street sheet.

You can report concerns about rough sleepers at any time through the national Streetlink service. StreetLink exists to help end rough sleeping by enabling members of the public to connect people sleeping rough with the local services that can support them.

Further information can be found on our rough sleepers webpage.

If you are 16 or 17 years old

If you are under 18 years of age and are either homeless or at risk of homelessness, you should:

• call the council on 01424 451100, phone service hours are available on our website.

We will need to assess your housing situation.  As we work jointly with East Sussex County County, we may need to pass your contact details to them to enable them to carry out a more detailed assessment of your housing situation.

Contact details:

• East Sussex County Council Children's Services
  Ocean House, 87-89 London Road
  St Leonards
  TN37 6DH
• Opening hours: Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 5.00pm, Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm
• Call the Single Point of Advice (SPOA): telephone 01323 464222
• If you need to speak to anyone outside opening hours, please call the Emergency Duty Service on 01273 335905.

Children's Services work with young people and their families to help solve problems. In most cases the best option will be to support you to stay living with your family. If this is not possible and you have no where to stay or it is unsafe for you to return home, Children's Services will be able to find you temporary accommodation.

If you are 55 or over

There are three private sheltered schemes which run outside of the Housing Register. They have their own application processes:

• Optivo: telephone 0800 121 60 60
• Housing & Care 21: telephone 0370 192 4000
• Anchor Housing:  telephone 0808 115 5605

Important advice if you have received a notice

If you have been served a Notice by your landlord e.g. Section 8 or Section 21, you can't be evicted until you have received another notice titled Bailiff Warrant. BHT Hastings Advice can give advice on this.

We advise that you do not leave your tenancy early because if you do, you may be considered to have made yourself intentionally homeless. This will impact on the legal duties the Council has for you.

We will do everything we can to help you resolve the issues with your tenancy by working with you and your landlord/agent.

Other support available

You may be eligible to join our housing register. For more information visit our housing register webpage.

For help and advice on domestic violence, visit our domestic violence webpage.

For information on supported and sheltered housing if you are 55 or over, visit our sheltered housing webpage.

If you live in a property which is in disrepair and the landlord has not done anything to fix the situation you can report this to us using our online housing disrepair form.

There are other organisations which can help you with problems you may be facing. You can find out more about them and the help they can offer on our other help and support page.