Homelessness and Prevention

How Can We Help?

The Housing Act 1996 - Part VII - amended by the Homelessness Act 2002, sets out the legal duties of local authorities towards people who are homeless or about to be made homeless. However, the Council does not have to provide accommodation to all homeless people.

This will depend on our decision on your homeless application. If we decide you are eligible for help, homeless, in priority need, not intentionally homeless and you have a connection with the Basildon district then we will have a full duty to help, this may mean offering you private rented or possibly housing association accommodation

Homelessness

We will do all we can to prevent you from being homeless. If you are homeless or about to become homeless, you can make an application for help. To decide how we will help you we will have to look at the following things;

1. Your eligibility for help

• Certain applicants from abroad may not be eligible for help. To help us decide we will ask you for your passport and proof of employment

2. Your current situation 

• Whether you are able to return to your recent accommodation
• Whether you have been homeless due to an emergency

3. Your needs

• Whether you have dependant children
• Whether you or your partner are pregnant
• Whether you have you are under 18, elderly, disabled or vulnerable
• Whether you have serious health problems

4. Your reasons for becoming homeless

We look at whether you had a choice in becoming homeless

• If we decide you have become homeless but had a choice in the matter, (you become intentionally homeless) - there is a limit to the amount of help we can offer you.

For example

The accommodation you left was available and reasonable for you to occupy. You have deliberately done something that lead to you losing your accommodation.  

5. Your local connections

• Whether you have lived here for 6 of the last 12 months
• Whether you have permanent work in this area
• Whether you have close relatives in this area

If you do not have any connections with us we maybe able to refer you to another authority for help 

Do you have a priority need?

You are considered to have a priority need if you or a member of your family is one or more of the following

• Pregnant
• You a have a dependant child aged 16 yrs or younger or aged 17 - 18 yrs old and still at school
• You are 16 or 17 yrs old
• Vulnerable as a result of a physical or mental disability
• Homeless due to a flood, fire or similar disaster
• Forced to leave home because of violence or abuse, and more at risk than most people

 Always bring proof ID

• Passport/and or birth certificate
• Proof of any dependant children
• Any proof of pregnancy
• National insurance number

The Homeless Persons Team

All homeless applications made to us are looked at by our Housing Advice & Assessment officers. Most of the referrals we see come to us through the housing advice team. Our aim is to find ways of preventing homelessness and complete application enquiries as soon as possible.

To make the most of your time with us please bring the following

If you are a tenant of a lodger

• Copy of any tenancy agreement
• Letters from your landlord
• Any notice to leave
• Any court paperwork
• Proof of all income
• Proof of all your outgoings and savings

If you are a landlord and you have asked your tenant or lodger to leave

• Letters from your tenant
• Copies of letters to your tenant

If you are a homeowner

• Mortgage paperwork and letters
• Any court paperwork
• proof of all income
• Proof of all outgoings and savings 

Before a decision is made to whether temporary or permanent accommodation should be allocated, we will hold a series of interviews with you where we will find out the details of your impending or actual homelessness. The service we provide is currently being reviewed as we are always striving to improve services for our customers,

• Improve our performance on homelessness decisions made
• Reduce the use of Bed & Breakfast accommodation
• Reduce the current length of time our clients stay in a hostel or B&B accommodation

We may decide that we do not have a duty to help you, we will write to you explaining how we reached our decision and you will have the right to request a review.  

Will I Be Offered Temporary Accommodation?

• If we decide to accept a duty to help you and no permanent accommodation is available, we may offer you temporary accommodation
• We will only place you in B&B accommodation in cases of an emergency

The  Homelessness Strategy [330kb] provides you with information on current initiatives and our plans for the future.

Further information is available under the following headings,

Homelessness - advice and support

Online homeless eligibility assessment

Homelessness - Documents you will need

Think! Before you leave home 

A guide for young people

It's not a good idea to rush into leaving home .

Ideally you should stay with your family until you can leave in a more planned way.It can be difficult to find somewhere to live and it can be hard to pay your bills.

You could end up in difficulty, even homeless.

 Download our guide for young people [2Mb]

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