Homelessness help from Hillingdon Council

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, contact Hillingdon Council 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.^[29]

If you are homeless today, phone. Call the council's homelessness prevention and advice team on 01895 556666.^[24] If you are at risk but not yet homeless, the council asks you to fill in its online housing advice self-assessment, which needs an email address.^[24]

Out of hours. When the council's offices are closed — it lists weekdays from 5pm to 9am, and weekends — call its out-of-hours emergency line on 01895 250111. The council's homelessness page says this line gives emergency advice for situations that cannot wait until its offices open.^[26] If you or someone else is in danger, call 999.

Domestic abuse. If you are in immediate danger, call 999. The council names Hillingdon Women's Centre and Hestia for specialist support, including refuge accommodation.^[18]

Aged 18 to 25. If you are threatened with homelessness, the council asks you to contact the P3 charity first.^[18] If you have nowhere to stay tonight, phone the council, whatever your age.

Sleeping rough. If you are sleeping rough, or worried about someone who is, contact StreetLink, which connects people with local outreach services. In 2024/25 outreach workers recorded 793 people sleeping rough in Hillingdon, 301 of them at Heathrow airport.^[27]

Free advice is available at any point. The council names Hillingdon Advice Partnership, Shelter and Crisis.^[18]

Hillingdon'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.^[29]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[29]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[29]
• 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.^[29]

What the council says it can do. It can contact your landlord, family or friends to try to stop an eviction, and help you find a private rented home.^[19] Its rental support scheme can pay a deposit and a month's rent in advance to a landlord, if the home is affordable for you.^[19] The council says the home it secures is most likely to be in the private rented sector.^[19]

What to bring. The council may ask for:

• proof of identity
• evidence that you are losing your home, such as a notice from your landlord
• proof of income.^[19]

Without a local connection to Hillingdon, 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.^[29] Immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[29]

If Hillingdon 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.^[29]

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.^[29]

What the council provides. The council says emergency accommodation is likely to be a nightly let: one room, usually with a shared bathroom, where you arrange your own meals.^[22] If it accepts a duty to you, you may move on to temporary accommodation, most likely a privately rented home. It tries to place people in the borough, but this is not always possible.^[22]

Things to know before you move in. You pay for emergency and temporary accommodation, and you can claim Housing Benefit towards it.^[22] The council says none of its providers currently allows pets. It also warns that if you refuse an offer it considers suitable, it will make no further offers.^[22]

The local picture. The council's 2025 homelessness review recorded 1,562 households in temporary accommodation at the end of March 2025, up by more than a third in a year. Of these, 796 were in nightly paid accommodation.^[27]

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.^[29]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[29] 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.^[29]

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.^[29]

Asking Hillingdon for a review. Ask in writing within the 21 days, even if you are still gathering your reasons, and keep a dated copy.^[29] The council recommends giving your full reasons. A senior officer who was not involved in the original decision looks at it again.^[23] Someone else, such as Citizens Advice or a solicitor, can ask for you with your written consent.^[23] The council says it does not normally have to house you while the review is carried out, though you can ask it to.^[23]

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.^[44]

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.^[41]