Homelessness - the people we can help

To qualify for further assistance we will need to establish that:

 


Asylum seekers and people from overseas

Different rules may apply to you if you are an asylum seeker or a person from abroad. Your caseworker will explain how your application for housing may be affected.

Eligibility

To be eligible for assistance under current legislation, there should be no restrictions on your right to access public funds and other resources, including housing.

If you are ineligible for assistance, you cannot receive benefit relating to accommodation or assistance in obtaining accommodation. You may, however, receive advice and assistance from any advisory service provided by the council.

We can provide you with further information upon request.

Homelessness

One of the requirements to qualify for further help is that you must be homeless, or threatened with homelessness within the next 28 days.

There must not be any accommodation anywhere in the world which you could reasonably continue to live in.

Preventing homelessness

If you think there is a possibility you may lose your home, and do not have another home to go to, contact us on 020 8937 2000 or the Homeless prevention service on 020 8937 2787 as soon as possible.

We may refer you to specialists that can work on your behalf, to stop you losing your home. For instance:

  • we may be able to negotiate with your landlord to delay or prevent homelessness
  • we can call on trained staff who may be able to intervene on your behalf with Building Societies and provide debt counselling
  • if your landlord is acting illegally action can be taken on your behalf to prevent this
  • if you are living in poor conditions officers from Private Housing Services may be able to intervene on your behalf


Priority need

Only a small percentage of people who lose their homes are in 'priority' need. You will be in priority need if:
 

  • you have dependent children who live with you
  • you or a member of your household is pregnant
  • you are assessed as being vulnerable, either medically or socially
  • you are homeless because you cannot live in your home as a result of fire or flood
  • there is some other special reason.


If you are homeless but not in priority need we will only offer you advice.

If you are homeless, or likely to be homeless, eligible and in priority need, we will make sure you have somewhere to live while your case is investigated.

The accommodation that will initially be provided will almost certainly be a hotel. The council uses other forms of short-term housing; such property is normally rented from private sector landlords and managed by housing associations.

Other suitable accommodation 

We are only required to provide temporary housing to qualifying homeless households as a last resort. All other routes to finding answers to your housing problems must first be exhausted.

The Housing Act 1996 requires the authority to investigate whether there is other suitable accommodation that you could reasonably occupy and if necessary help you to obtain that accommodation.

Intentional homelessness

If you are homeless eligible and in priority need we will need to know why you lost your last permanent home - this may not be where you are now living.

The Housing Act says that if you lose your last home because of something you did or failed to do, you may be 'intentionally homeless'.

Some examples are:

 

  • voluntarily giving up your home
  • failure to pay your rent or mortgage
  • anti-social behaviour
  • being a perpetrator of domestic violence


If you are found to be intentionally homeless, we will only offer you accommodation for a limited period, usually 28 days, while you look for another home.

Do you have a local connection with Brent?

We will seek to establish that you have what is called a local connection with Brent.

Local connection may exist depending on where you have lived, where your close relatives live or where you work.

You will be expected to meet one of the following:

 

  • normally resident in Brent for either six of the last 12 months or three of the last five years
  • in permanent employment in Brent on the day of homelessness
  • close family connection to Brent, with the family member being resident in the borough for a minimum period of five years. Close family members are defined as mother, father, brother, sister or adult children
  • where there are other special circumstances


It may be that a much closer local connection can be established with another council. In this case we may ask the other council to help you find a home. If we do refer your case in this way, this will be discussed with you.

Updated 11/10/2009 04:18:15 PM