Homelessness help from Leicester City Council

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, contact Leicester 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.^[20]

By phone, in office hours. Call 0116 454 1008, Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 4.30pm.^[13] The council books a housing assessment with you, by phone or in person, and if you are eligible it gives you a personalised housing plan.^[15] It does not publish an online homelessness form, so the phone line is the way in.^[13]

Out of hours. At weekends, and between 4.30pm and 8am on weekdays, call 0116 454 0190 and choose option 3.^[13]

Have your documents ready if you can — ID, any notice from your landlord, and medical, support or money evidence. Do not delay contacting the council to find them.^[13]

Sleeping rough. The council's Transitions Team offers advice, support and help to find accommodation — call 0116 454 0190, the same number as the out-of-hours line, or email outreachteam@leicester.gov.uk. You can also report someone sleeping rough through StreetLink.^[17] If you think the person sleeping rough is under 18, call 999.^[17] Call 999 too if someone needs urgent medical help.

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

Leicester'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.^[20]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[20]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[20]
• 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.^[20]

Leicester's own pages say it may be able to help even if you still have a roof over your head.^[16] Immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[20]

If Leicester 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.^[20]

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.^[20]

The local picture. The council's pages say only that it may offer temporary accommodation if you are already homeless.^[15] Its homelessness strategy for 2023 to 2028 says bed and breakfast, or accommodation without cooking facilities, is not suitable for anyone to live in. It aims not to use it — or, where it must, only for a very short time.^[18]

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.^[20] 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.^[20]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[20] 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.^[20]

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.^[20]

Asking Leicester 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.^[13]

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.^[35] Shelter and Citizens Advice give free housing advice throughout.

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.^[32]