Homelessness help from Brighton & Hove City Council

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, contact Brighton & Hove City Council straight away — it cannot turn you away without looking at your case. For anyone eligible, the council's duties begin once you are likely to become homeless within 56 days.^[32]

By phone. Call the housing options line on 01273 294 400, Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 1.30pm.^[19]

Out of hours. The council publishes no separate out-of-hours homelessness number. If you call 01273 294 400 outside its hours, you are redirected to a service provider, which records your call and passes it to a housing officer who will contact you.^[19] If you have nowhere to stay tonight, say so clearly and ask to speak to the duty Homeless Persons Officer.^[19]

In person. The Housing Advice and Homelessness Help Desk is at Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, Hove, BN3 3BQ. It is open 9.30am to 4.30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 11am to 4.30pm on Wednesday.^[21] Without an appointment you may not be seen the same day, but you can book one.^[21]

Online. The council's Housing Advice service has an online form for telling it you are at risk of homelessness, homeless or sleeping rough. It aims to reply within 10 working days.^[19] If you have nowhere safe to stay tonight, use the phone line or the help desk instead.

Have your documents ready if you can — ID, proof of eligibility, money documents, your National Insurance number and any eviction notice. Do not delay contacting the council to find them.^[19]

Sleeping rough. Contact the council through StreetLink and describe where you sleep. Reports go to the council's Street Outreach service, run by Change Grow Live.^[26] If you need urgent medical care, or you are under 18, call 999.^[26]

Free housing advice from Shelter or Citizens Advice is available at any point.

Brighton & Hove's duties come from Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and are the same across England — the general homelessness guide explains each one 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 find another before you lose it.^[32]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[32]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[32]
• If you are eligible, in priority need and did not become homeless intentionally, 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 allows.^[32]

The council says its aim is to help you stay in your home, and to help you find somewhere else if that is not possible.^[25] The council's pages say how much it can do depends on whether you are legally homeless, your level of need, and whether it decides you became homeless intentionally.^[26] Without a local connection to Brighton & Hove, your case may be referred to a council where you have one — never to a district where you would run the risk of violence, including domestic abuse.^[32] Immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[32]

If Brighton & Hove 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.^[32]

Whatever is provided must be suitable for your whole household. For households with dependent children or a pregnant member, bed and breakfast can be used only where nothing else is available — and then for no more than 6 weeks in total.^[32]

The local picture. The council uses emergency accommodation for people it has a legal duty to house, or while it looks into whether it has that duty. Temporary accommodation is short-term housing managed by its Temporary Accommodation Team. You pay rent or charges for both.^[28] In September 2026 the council said it had around 2,300 households in temporary accommodation.^[29]

The council's own aims. Its homelessness and rough sleeping strategy for 2025 to 2030 says too many people spend too long in temporary accommodation, sometimes of poorer quality. It aims to minimise bed and breakfast, other shared accommodation and out-of-area placements for families with children.^[30]

The law applies to every placement: the council must secure accommodation in its own district so far as reasonably practicable. It must weigh the location's effect on your work, caring responsibilities, children's education and the support you rely on.^[32] If you think accommodation offered under a duty is unsuitable, you can normally ask for a review. Emergency accommodation provided while the council investigates is challenged differently.^[32]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[32] 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.^[32]

You have 21 days from the date you are told the decision, unless the council agrees in writing to give you longer. A review that goes against you — or one you do not hear back about in time — can then be taken to the county court on a point of law under section 204, again within 21 days.^[32]

Asking Brighton & Hove for a review. The council's homelessness pages do not set out a review route, so ask for a review in writing, say clearly that it is a section 202 review, and keep a dated copy. The decision letter should tell you where to send it.^[19]

Homelessness cases fall within civil legal aid, so a legal aid solicitor can advise on and run a review or appeal at no cost if you qualify. Check through the government's Find a Legal Aid Adviser tool.^[47] The council's own pages point to the BHT Sussex Advice Centre, Citizens Advice and Shelter for free housing advice.^[25]

A complaint about how your case was handled, rather than what was decided, goes through the council's complaints process first, then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. That route cannot replace a section 202 review or a section 204 appeal, which have their own strict deadlines.^[44]