Homelessness help from Brent Council

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, ask Brent Council for help straight away — it cannot turn you away without looking at your case. You do not have to wait until you are on the street: for anyone eligible, the council's duties begin once you are likely to become homeless within 56 days.^[11]

If you are homeless today, call the council's homeless team on 020 8937 2000 and choose option 2, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm — tell them what your situation is and why it's urgent. You can also start a housing assistance application online through the council's website.^[8] Outside office hours, a genuine housing emergency is dealt with by the council's out-of-hours service on 020 8937 1234.^[8]

If the council has to arrange emergency accommodation, it may place you outside Brent when there is a shortage locally, so ask what is available and where.^[9]

If you are sleeping rough, or worried about someone who is, you can alert local outreach services through StreetLink.^[8] Call 999 if the person needs urgent medical help.

Free housing advice from Shelter or Citizens Advice is available at any point — and you can always approach the council yourself directly.

Brent's duties come from Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and are the same across England — the general homelessness guide explains each duty in detail. In short:

• 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.^[11]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[11]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[11]
• If you are eligible, in priority need and did not become homeless intentionally, the main housing duty can follow once the relief duty ends. Under it, the council must secure accommodation for your household until the duty ends in one of the ways the law allows.^[11]

Your immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[11] You start any of this by contacting the council's homeless team.^[8]

If Brent has reason to believe you may be homeless, eligible and in priority need, it must secure interim accommodation for you while it looks into your case — the duty arises before any decision on your application.^[11]

Whatever is provided must be suitable for your whole household. For households with dependent children or a pregnant member, bed and breakfast accommodation can be used only where nothing else is available — and then for no more than 6 weeks in total.^[11]

On the local picture: the council's own guidance says emergency accommodation is short-term while it looks into your situation, may be a bed and breakfast, a hostel or a self-contained home, and may be outside Brent where there is a shortage locally.^[9]

The law still applies to every placement: the council must secure accommodation in its own district so far as reasonably practicable, and must weigh the location's effect on your work, caring responsibilities, children's education and the support you rely on — factors the council says it considers when it places you.^[9][11] If you think accommodation offered under a duty is unsuitable for your household, you can normally ask for a review — though emergency accommodation provided while the council investigates is challenged differently.^[11]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[11] That covers decisions on:

• your eligibility or whether you count as homeless
• priority need, or a finding of intentional homelessness
• the council bringing a duty to an end
• whether accommodation offered to you is suitable.^[11]

The clock runs for 21 days from the date you're told the decision, unless the council agrees in writing to give you longer. A review that goes against you — or one you never hear back about within the set time — can then be taken to the county court on a point of law under section 204, again within 21 days.^[11] When you ask for a review, say clearly that you are requesting a review rather than just raising a query, and don't let the 21 days slip.

None of this needs to be faced alone — homelessness cases fall within civil legal aid, meaning a legal aid solicitor can advise on and run a review or appeal for you at no cost if you're financially eligible. Check who qualifies through the government's Find a Legal Aid Adviser tool.^[26] Shelter and Citizens Advice also give free housing advice throughout.

A different kind of complaint — about how your case was handled, rather than what was decided — goes through Brent's own complaints process first, then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if you're still unhappy.^[6] That route can't substitute for a section 202 review or a section 204 appeal, which have their own strict deadlines.^[23]