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Prevent and relieve homelessness

If you think you might become homeless we will help try to prevent this.

We are required to provide you with the following advice about:

  • your rights if you are homeless or threatened with homelessness
  • preventing homelessness
  • securing accommodation when homeless
  • the help that is available to you from Waverley Borough Council and other organisations in the borough
  • how to access that help.

We also give advice and information to meet the needs of the following groups of people:

  • People released from prison or youth detention centres
  • Care leavers
  • Former members of the regular armed forces
  • Victims of domestic abuse
  • People leaving hospital
  • People suffering from a mental illness or learning disability and
  • Any other group that the authority identifies as being at particular risk of homelessness in its district.

If you are homeless or soon to be homeless

 If you are homeless or worried that you could become homeless in the next 56 days, please contact us so we can carry out an initial assessment - we call this triage:

Contact Housing Options team

At Triage, we will assess whether you are:

  • eligible for assistance
  • homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days

We may need to make enquiries to establish the facts of your case and we will ask for your consent to do so.  We may contact your landlord, family or whoever provided your last settled accommodation. You may need to provide us with documents, eg a copy of a notice from your landlord, so that we can check  it is valid.  You may need to come back with those documents before we decide if you qualify for a full assessment. We call this a Full Housing Assessment (FHA).  

If we are satisfied you are eligible for assistance because you are homeless or threatened with homelessness in 56 days, we will book a FHA for you.  We will  work with you for 56 days to help prevent you from becoming homeless or help you secure suitable accommodation (relieve your homelessness).   

If we are not satisfied that you are eligible for assistance and homeless or threatened with homelessness, we will give you general advice as noted above.  We will confirm this in writing.   

If we do book you a FHA you need to provide us with key documents about your last settled accommodation and other circumstances. to your FHA.  These documents include:

  • proof of ID
  • bank statements and pay slips
  • proof of benefits
  • proof of debts
  • proof of pregnancy
  • tenancy agreement and copy of any notice
  • court papers

At the end of your FHA, we will give you a personal housing plan outlining the steps we will all take. We expect you to work with us:  keep in contact with us and take the steps set out in your personal housing plan to resolve your situation.  We  give you a copy of the plan so you know what you need to do. We update the actions as each one is completed until, together, we have resolved your situation. 

If we are satisfied that you are eligible for assistance, and homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days, we will accept a prevention or relief duty to you, depending on your circumstances and the outcome of our enquiries. You could approach any Local Authority for help, but please remember that if we accept a relief duty to you (ie you are homeless), and you do not have a local connection, we may refer you to another safe area where you have a local connection.

We will only consider whether you are in priority need, or are intentionally homeless, after the 56-day relief duty to you has ended.