Homelessness help from Southwark Council

If you are homeless, or worried you are about to lose your home, ask Southwark Council 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.^[14]

Contact the council's Housing Options service on 020 7525 4140 (option 1), by email at housing.options@southwark.gov.uk, or in person, for advice and an assessment.^[10] Have proof of who you are and of why you are homeless — such as a notice from your landlord — ready if you can, but do not let gathering it delay you. If you become homeless without warning, including in the evening or at the weekend, call the council's out-of-hours number on 020 7525 5000.^[10]

If you are sleeping rough, or worried about someone who is, you can alert local outreach services through StreetLink. Call the emergency services if someone 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.

Southwark's duties come from Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996, and they are the same for every council in England — the general homelessness guide sets each one out in full. The short version:

• If you are eligible and likely to lose your home within 56 days, the council owes you the prevention duty: reasonable steps to help you stay put, or line up somewhere else before you become homeless.^[14]
• Once you are actually homeless and eligible, that becomes the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you find somewhere to live.^[14]
• Either way, the council must assess your situation and write down, in a personalised housing plan, the steps it and you will each take.^[14]
• If you are also in priority need and did not make yourself homeless on purpose, the main housing duty can take over when the relief duty ends, and the council must then secure accommodation for your household until that duty ends in one of the ways the law allows.^[14]

What you qualify for can turn on your immigration and residence status; the general guide explains who is eligible.^[14]

If Southwark 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.^[14]

Southwark says the temporary accommodation it uses ranges from privately rented homes and bed and breakfasts to council-owned hostels and homes provided by charities and social landlords, and that where it cannot find accommodation in Southwark it works with housing providers in neighbouring areas — so a placement can be outside the borough.^[11] 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 six weeks.^[14] The council must also secure accommodation in its own district so far as reasonably practicable, and weigh the effect of the location on your work, your caring responsibilities, your children's schooling and the support you rely on.^[14] If you think accommodation offered under a duty is unsuitable, you can normally ask for a review.^[14]

If Southwark turns you down, ends a duty it owed you, or offers accommodation you think is unsuitable, you can challenge it. Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[14] 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.^[14]

Ask in writing, through the Housing Options team that handled your application; your decision letter should say where to send it. The clock is short — normally 21 days from the date you are told the decision — and the council does not have to consider a late request, so don't let it slip. A review that goes against you, or that you never hear back about in time, can then go to the county court on a point of law under section 204.^[14]

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.^[29] Shelter and Citizens Advice also give free housing advice throughout.

A complaint about how your case was handled — rather than what was decided — goes through Southwark's own complaints process first, then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if you are still unhappy. That route cannot substitute for a section 202 review or a section 204 appeal, which have their own strict deadlines.^[26]