- What to do if you’re homeless or worried about losing your home
- Are you homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
- How to apply to the council for homeless help
- What help you’ll get from the council
- Challenging the council’s decisions
- Get advice
What To Do if You’re Homeless or Worried About Losing Your Home
If you’re homeless, or you’re likely to become homeless, you should apply to the council for help.
You can apply for help as a single person or with anyone you can expect to live with, like your partner and children.
The council decides if you qualify for help under homeless law. It might have a duty to make permanent housing available for your household or to take steps to prevent you becoming homeless.
If you’re homeless, you’re entitled to temporary housing while the council investigates your application.
Being homeless doesn’t just mean sleeping on the streets. In some cases you can be legally homeless even if you’ve got a roof over your head – for example, if where you’re staying isn’t suitable for your disability.
You might also be at risk of becoming homeless, for example because your landlord is trying to evict you.
If you’re not a British citizen
If you’re under 18
If you’re leaving an abusive relationship
Use this page to find out how to apply and how the council will consider your application. If you need help, you can get advice at any point.
Are You Homeless or at Risk of Becoming Homeless
When you apply, the council has to investigate whether you’re legally homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless within 2 months.
If the council decides that you’re not, you won’t be entitled to homeless help, although you could challenge its decision.
Being homeless has a legal meaning in Scotland. It doesn’t just mean sleeping on the streets. It’s possible to be homeless under the law, even if you’ve got somewhere to stay.
For example, you may be legally homeless if:
- there’s nowhere in the UK or in the rest of the world where you and your family have a right to stay – for example, you’ve been evicted from your tenancy or you’ve been sleeping on a friend’s sofa and they’ve asked you to leave
- it’s unreasonable to stay where you are – for example, because it’s temporary housing like a refuge or hostel, or it’s not suitable for your disability
- you can’t get access to your home – for example, a landlord or partner has changed the locks
- you’d be abused or threatened – by someone you lived with, like domestic abuse by a partner or ex-partner
- you’re living apart from your family – because there’s nowhere you can live together.
These are just examples. There are other ways that you can be legally homeless too. Whether you’re legally homeless will depend on the facts of your case.
Read in more detail about the definition of homelessness on the Shelter Scotland website.
Being at Risk of Becoming Homeless
The council will decide if you’re at risk of becoming homeless. To qualify for help you usually have to be at risk of becoming legally homeless within the next 2 months.
For example, this might apply if you’re:
- being evicted
- asked to leave a friend or relative’s home
- leaving prison
- leaving care
- leaving armed forces housing
- at risk of losing a home you own.
These are examples. You might be at risk of becoming legally homeless for another reason.
If You’re Not Sure Whether You Qualify for Help
If you think you’re homeless, or at risk of homelessness, you should apply to the council for help as soon as possible.
If you don’t think you’ll be considered homeless or at risk of homelessness, you should get advice before you apply.
How to Apply to the Council for Homeless Help
Emergency Applications
If you’re reading this late at night or it’s an emergency, you don’t have to sleep rough. You can make an emergency application to the council. Check their website for an ‘out of hours’ number.
Find your local council on mygov.scot.
You can apply for homeless help if you’re 16 or over.
There is information about each local council’s homeless departments on the Shelter Scotland website.
Remember you don’t have to take action alone. An adviser can help you apply to the council for help, and look at your other options.
Check Which Council You Should Apply to
If you’re at risk of homelessness, apply to the council for the area in which you would prefer to live.
The council may check whether you have a local connection to the area. But even if you have no local connection, they cannot refer you to another Scottish council.
If you’re at risk of domestic abuse, you should get specialist advice to find safe housing in the right area. Read our advice for people who have experienced abuse.
Check if You Have a Local Connection
How to Apply
It’s best to apply to the housing department of the council. Check the council website for a phone number or office address.
Find contact details for councils on mygov.scot.
If it’s late at night, look for an ‘out of hours’ phone number on the website.
When you speak to someone at the council over the phone or in person, say you’re applying for homeless help.
If you’re told you can’t apply or you’re turned away at reception, this is wrong. The council has a duty to investigate your application.
You may be asked to fill out a form. Let them know if you need help completing it, for example because of a learning disability.
The help you’re entitled to depends on how your situation meets the legal tests under homeless law. The council will investigate your situation and will probably interview you.
Interview with a Housing Officer
This might also be called a homeless assessment or appointment. There’s information about how to prepare and what happens at the interview on the Shelter Scotland website.
If you’re disabled, you could ask for the interview to happen in an accessible office or for a housing officer to visit you.
What Help You’ll Get from the Council
The council will investigate your case and should apply the law to decide what help you’re entitled to. If you don’t agree with what the council decides, you can challenge it.
Temporary Housing
The council has a duty to provide temporary housing to anyone who applies for homeless help who it believes is homeless.
The council has to provide you with temporary housing while you’re waiting for:
- a decision on your homeless application (if you’re homeless already)
- permanent accommodation to become available
- the outcome of a challenge against a council decision
- a decision about whether you’ll be housed in another part of the UK.
If you’re at risk of becoming homeless, you normally won’t get temporary housing, unless you become homeless.
If the council decides you’re intentionally homeless and not entitled to permanent housing, it can’t ask you to leave temporary housing straight away. You must be allowed to stay for long enough to give you a reasonable opportunity to find somewhere else to live.
You will normally have to pay a reasonable charge for temporary housing. You may need to claim Housing Benefit to help with housing costs.
Temporary housing has to meet certain standards. If you don’t think temporary accommodation is suitable for your needs, get advice.
Help to Stay in Your Home
The council has to take steps to prevent you from becoming homeless if you’re:
- at risk of becoming homeless, and
- it’s not intentional – this means that you didn’t do something that made you lose your home.
Depending on your situation, the council might take steps like:
- checking you’re getting all the benefits you’re entitled to
- taking money from your wages to pay off rent arrears rather than evicting you, if you’re a council tenant
- giving help or advice with finding a new place to live before you become homeless.
Permanent Housing
The council you apply to has to make suitable permanent accommodation available in the area for you, and the people you can expect to live with, if you:
- are legally homeless
- aren’t intentionally homeless – this means that you didn’t do something that made you lose your home
- have a local connection to the area (or the council decides that you don’t need a local connection, or you don’t have a local connection to anywhere in the UK).
Councils can provide permanent housing in different ways. You might be offered a council house, a private tenancy, or you might have to bid for a home you want to rent.
The permanent housing you get will usually be a long-term tenancy. You’ll normally need to pay rent and sign a tenancy agreement. You might be able to claim benefits to help with your housing costs.
The permanent housing might be in a different area of the UK if the council decides that no one in your household has a local connection to the area you applied to. If a council in England or Wales agrees that you have a local connection in its area, you may be offered permanent housing there instead. You can challenge this decision.
You can’t be referred to another council if you, or someone you live with, would be at risk of domestic abuse there.
If a housing support assessment shows that you need more support, the council can offer you transitional housing rather than permanent housing. For example, if you need support for drug or alcohol misuse.
What Intentionally Homeless Means
If the Council Says You Don’t Have a Local Connection
There’s more general information about permanent housing on the Shelter Scotland website.
Challenging the Council’s Decisions
The council might decide that you’re not entitled to permanent housing.
This might be because:
- you’re not legally homeless (or at risk of becoming homeless), or
- you’re intentionally homeless – you’ve deliberately done or not done something which has made you lose your home.
The council might also decide that you’re due permanent housing but in another area, because you don’t have a local connection where you applied.
You can challenge these decisions and other actions of the council.
You should get a letter explaining how the council has decided your application and why. You should have at least 21 days from when you get the letter to challenge the decision.
Get advice as soon as possible. An adviser can review your case and help you decide what arguments to use to challenge the council’s decision.
Get Advice
You don’t have to take action alone. An adviser can help you apply to the council for help or challenge a council’s decision about your case.
They could also support you to take action to stay in your home, if that’s the right option for you.
Get advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter Scotland.
Tell them if you need help urgently. For example, if you’ve got a date for an eviction hearing or you think you’ll be sleeping rough. Did this advice help? Yes No
Source: Citizen Advice
