Homelessness help from Royal Borough of Greenwich

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, ask the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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.^[22]

Contact the council's Housing Options service on 020 8921 2863, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, or apply online through the council's "get help if you're homeless" pages.^[14] Outside those hours, call the council's out-of-hours line, 020 8854 8888 — the council publishes it as the homelessness contact for Monday to Friday after 5pm, and weekends.^[15]

If the council has to provide emergency accommodation, it may not be within Greenwich.^[18]

If you are sleeping rough, or worried about someone who is, you can alert the council's outreach service through StreetLink.^[20] 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.

Greenwich's duties come from Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and are the same in every London borough — 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.^[22]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[22]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[22]
• 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.^[22]

Your immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[22]

If Greenwich 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.^[22]

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.^[22]

On the local picture: the council places some households in temporary accommodation outside the borough when nothing suitable is available locally, and had around 2,000 households in temporary accommodation as at March 2025.^[18]

The law still applies to every placement: the council must secure accommodation in its own district so far as reasonably practicable. It must also weigh the location's effect on your work, caring responsibilities, children's education and the support you rely on.^[22] 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.^[22]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[22] 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.^[22]

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.^[22]

In practice that means asking in writing, through the Housing Options team that handled your application; your decision letter should tell you exactly where to send it.^[22] The council doesn't have to look at a late request, so 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.^[37] 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 Greenwich's own complaints process first, then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if you're still unhappy. That route can't substitute for a section 202 review or a section 204 appeal, which have their own strict deadlines.^[34]