Homelessness help from Barnet Council

If you have nowhere to stay tonight, or you are about to lose your home, ask for help straight away — the council cannot turn you away without looking at your case. You do not have to wait until you have nowhere left to go: for anyone eligible, the council's duties begin once you are likely to become homeless within 56 days.^[22] In Barnet, homelessness help comes through Barnet Homes, which runs the council's Housing Options service on the council's behalf — the legal duties remain the council's.^[11] Call 020 8610 3539, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, or email housingadvice@barnethomes.org; there is no application form to fill in — the team asks some questions to understand your housing need and books your first appointment. Visits to the Barnet Homes office at 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, NW9 4EW are by appointment only, so phone or email first.^[11] At any other time, if it is an emergency, call the council's out-of-hours number, 020 8359 2000.^[11] Barnet asks you to get in touch as soon as possible, and immediately if you are at risk of becoming homeless within the next 56 days.^[11] If you are sleeping rough, or worried about someone who is, a StreetLink referral — at thestreetlink.org.uk, or by phone on 0300 500 0914 if you cannot get online — alerts Barnet's rough sleeper team and outreach services; in severe weather the borough provides emergency accommodation for rough sleepers, and the local day centre Homeless Action in Barnet offers hot meals, showers and housing advice.^[17] Young people aged 16 or 17 are asked to contact the council's children's services team, Barnet MASH, on 020 8359 4066 during weekday office hours.^[18] Free housing advice from Shelter and free help from Citizens Advice are available at any point — and you can approach the council yourself directly.

Barnet's duties come from Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and are the same in every English borough — the general homelessness guide explains each one in depth. In summary: if you are eligible and likely to become homeless within 56 days, the council owes you the prevention duty — reasonable steps to help you keep your home or secure another before you lose it.^[22] If you are eligible and already homeless, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure somewhere suitable to live.^[22] It must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and it will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[22] And for applicants who are eligible, in priority need and not intentionally homeless, the main housing duty can follow once the relief duty ends: the council must then secure accommodation for your household until the duty ends in one of the ways the law sets out.^[22] In Barnet this work is carried out by Barnet Homes, part of The Barnet Group, a company wholly owned by the council — the duties themselves remain Barnet Council's whoever answers the phone.^[11] The council's published guidance describes what happens first: a Housing Options Officer carries out a triage assessment to work out whether the council can help, covering your household (including everyone's immigration status), any serious medical conditions you believe your current home affects or makes worse, your income and outgoings, and the housing problem itself.^[13] The same guidance sets expectations: the council says its first priority will be to help you stay in your current home, and that for most people a solution is most likely to be with a private landlord — very few people are offered a council or housing association home.^[13]

If Barnet has reason to believe you may be homeless, eligible and in priority need, it must secure interim accommodation while it looks into your case — the duty arises before any decision on your application.^[22] Barnet Homes calls this emergency temporary accommodation: you get one suitable offer, based on your housing needs assessment, meeting your minimum needs rather than what you want — it may have fewer bedrooms than you need. If you do not accept it, Barnet Homes will not find you other emergency accommodation, and you must make your own arrangements until a long-term offer is made.^[14] Emergency accommodation is likely to be outside Barnet and may be outside London.^[19] The council's Temporary Accommodation Placements Policy, dated 28 July 2025, explains how locations are decided: a location priority is not an assurance a home in that area will be available, "close to borough" can include places outside London, households facing affordability barriers — including benefit constraints — do not get priority for in-borough or close-to-borough placements, and when a placement is made outside Barnet the council notifies the host borough under section 208 of the Housing Act 1996.^[19] Households with particular needs — for example children on a Child Protection Plan or with an Education, Health and Care plan in Barnet — get in-borough priority.^[19] The law applies to every placement regardless: accommodation must suit your whole household; bed and breakfast for households with dependent children or a pregnant member can be used only where nothing else is available, for no more than 6 weeks; and the council must secure accommodation in its own district so far as reasonably practicable, weighing the effect on work, caring responsibilities, education and support.^[22] On the local picture: the council's Temporary Accommodation Reduction Plan for 2026 to 2030, considered by its Cabinet in November 2025, reports 2,945 households in temporary accommodation in June 2025 — up 33% from 2,202 in June 2023 — and forecasts around 4,000 by 2030 without further action.^[20] Those are the council's own dated figures — useful context when weighing up an offer or a placement location. If a placement seems unsuitable for your household, you can ask for a review — see the next section.^[22]

Most significant homelessness decisions carry a right of review under section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 — including whether you are eligible, what duty you are owed, the steps in your personalised housing plan, a referral of your case to another council, and the suitability of accommodation offered to you; you must ask for the review within 21 days of being told the decision, though the council can allow longer in writing.^[22] If the review goes against you, or you are not told the outcome within the prescribed time, a further challenge is possible: an appeal to the county court on a point of law under section 204, again within 21 days of the review decision.^[22] In Barnet, make your review request in writing to the council; because your application is handled by Barnet Homes on the council's behalf, the Housing Options contact details above are the practical place to send it — and keep a copy of everything, including the date you sent it.^[11] You do not have to handle a review alone: homelessness is within the scope of civil legal aid, so advice and representation from a legal aid solicitor on a review or appeal can be free if you qualify, and Shelter, Citizens Advice and local law centres can help you find one.^[31] If your complaint is about how your case was handled — delays, lost documents, no response — rather than about the decision itself, use the council's complaints procedure first and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman; that route is not a substitute for a section 202 review or a section 204 appeal, so never let the review deadline pass while a complaint is being looked at.^[28]