Homelessness help from Portsmouth City Council

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, contact Portsmouth 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.^[27]

By phone. Call the Housing Needs Advice and Support team on 023 9283 4989 during office hours. The council's contact page gives its current opening times.^[18]

Out of hours. The council's homelessness pages say that if you need urgent help outside office hours, you should call its emergency line on 023 9282 4244. The council says this line is only for crisis situations.^[18]

In person or online. You can visit the team at the Civic Offices in Guildhall Square, and you do not need an appointment for your first visit. You can also email Housing.Options@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or use the council's online contact form.^[18] If you have nowhere safe to stay tonight, phone or visit rather than waiting for a reply.

If you are fleeing domestic abuse. If you or someone else is in danger, call 999. The council says it will not contact the person who harmed you as part of its enquiries. It also says you can ask any council in England or Wales for help if you are at risk where you live.^[22]

Sleeping rough. The council's Rough Sleeping Hub at 6 Queen Street is open every day from 8am to 4pm, closed between 12pm and 1pm. You can visit or call 023 9283 4188.^[23] If you are worried about someone sleeping outside, the council asks you to share their details through StreetLink.^[23]

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

Portsmouth'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.^[27]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[27]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[27]
• 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.^[27]

The council says its team will look at your situation, make a housing plan with you, and check whether you are in priority need. It may talk to your family or landlord to help you stay where you are, or offer money support to help you stay or move.^[21] Without a local connection to Portsmouth, 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.^[27] Immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[27]

If Portsmouth 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.^[27]

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.^[27]

The local picture. The council's temporary accommodation placement policy for 2025 to 2030 says the number of households it placed in temporary accommodation more than tripled between April 2020 and April 2025, from 180 to 579.^[24] It uses its own homes and private providers. It aims to avoid bed and breakfast and hotels where possible, and uses bed and breakfast for families only as a last resort.^[24]

Charges and location. You pay a charge for temporary accommodation — the FAQs explain how that works.^[24] The policy says the council will place people in Portsmouth wherever reasonably practicable, and as close to the city as it safely can when it cannot.^[24]

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.^[27]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[27] 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.^[27]

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.^[27]

Asking Portsmouth for a review. Ask in writing within the 21 days, even if you are still gathering your reasons, and keep a dated copy. Your decision letter should say where to send it.^[27] The council's own review guidance, dated July 2019, asks you to explain why you think the decision is wrong. It says a more senior officer who was not involved will look at it.^[25]

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.^[42] The council also points to Advice Portsmouth for free, independent advice.^[21]

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.^[39]