Homelessness

See Contact Details for Homelessness including outside of office hours.

The new Homelessness Reduction Act makes changes that mean North Warwickshire Borough Council has to act to help all eligible applicants – rather than just those with a ‘priority need’.

Advice about Homelessness

If you are at risk of being homeless we will work with you to either stay in your current home or find other accommodation before you become homeless.

The new law builds on previous Acts by requiring public authorities to notify North Warwickshire Borough Council if someone they’re working with is facing homelessness.

It adds two new duties:

• Duty to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness: North Warwickshire Borough Council will have to help people at risk of losing suitable accommodation as soon as they are threatened with homelessness within 56 days.  This includes helping people when they receive a valid notice from their landlord if they are struggling to find another letting. Tenants do not have to wait until they have a bailiff’s date before we will act to help them.
• Duty to take steps to relieve homelessness: North Warwickshire Borough Council will have to help all those who are homeless to secure suitable accommodation, regardless of whether they are in priority need or ‘Intentionally Homeless’. This should mean that all eligible households are offered help to find a home, rather than some people being turned away.  It should also ensure that the true scale of homelessness is recorded.

If neither of the above steps work and the household becomes, or remains, homeless, then those in priority need who are not intentionally homeless retain their right to be rehoused, but non-priority households will not be entitled to further help.

The 2017 Homelessness Monitor shows half (49%) of English Councils report that helping homeless people to find a self-contained private rental is “very difficult” because of the combined effects of rising rents and welfare benefit restrictions, particularly frozen Local Housing Allowance rates.  In addition to this almost two-thirds (64%) report difficulties in helping homeless people access social housing because of high demand for vacancies.