Homelessness help from Wigan Council

If you are homeless tonight, or worried you are about to lose your home, contact the 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.^[42]

Contact the Homeless Solutions Team on 01942 487732, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, or email HST@wigan.gov.uk.^[28] You can also fill in the council's online housing assistance referral form (opens in new tab).^[28] If you have nowhere to stay tonight, say so, and give a number the council can call you back on.^[28]

Out of hours. Outside office hours, including after 5pm on weekdays and at weekends, call 01942 828777 if you have nowhere to stay and it is an emergency. Staff on that line pass your call to the council's out-of-hours duty homeless team.^[29] If you or someone else is in danger, call 999.

Don't give up your home first. The council advises that it is much better to stay where you are while you plan a move, and says it will first try to keep you in your current home.^[28]

Domestic abuse. If you are in danger, call 999. Once you are safe, contact the homeless team on 01942 487732, or 01942 828777 out of hours.^[30] The council lists the Wigan Borough Domestic Abuse helpline on 01942 311365, Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, and Refuge's 24-hour helpline on 0808 2000 247.^[30]

Sleeping rough. The council works with The Brick, whose outreach workers look for people sleeping rough, and runs its own form to tell it about someone sleeping rough (opens in new tab).^[32]

Free advice is available at any point. The council names Shelter for free, independent advice, and Citizens Advice Wigan Borough at Wigan Life Centre.^[28]

Wigan'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.^[42]
• If you are already homeless and eligible, it owes you the relief duty — reasonable steps to help you secure accommodation.^[42]
• In both cases it must assess your circumstances and record the steps you and the council will each take in a personalised housing plan.^[42]
• 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.^[42]

What the council says it does. It says it will talk to you about your circumstances, agree a Personal Housing Support Plan with you, and give you a case officer.^[28] It can arrange mediation if things have broken down with your family. Its Private Renting Assistance Scheme can give a private landlord a non-cash bond — a written promise from the council — in place of a cash deposit.^[35]

A homeless application is not a housing register application. To join Wigan's housing register you first fill in a short housing options form, then apply through the council's housing portal. The council says applications are taking about 6 weeks to process.^[37]

Without a local connection to Wigan, 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.^[42] Immigration and residence status can affect what help you are eligible for — the general homelessness guide sets out who is eligible.^[42]

If the council 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.^[42]

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.^[42]

What the council says it uses. The homelessness strategy the council approved in July 2025 says it provides a range of temporary accommodation, but has come to rely on hotels in a variety of locations as demand has grown. It says it wants to avoid bed and breakfast, which it calls an unsuitable offer.^[38] For people sleeping rough, it runs two accommodation and support hubs and an emergency night shelter.^[32]

The local picture. Provisional official statistics recorded 252 households in temporary accommodation in Wigan on 31 March 2026, 168 of them with children.^[41] By type, the largest groups were 161 in private sector accommodation, 70 in council or housing association homes and 13 in bed and breakfast.^[41]

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.^[42]

Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 gives you the right to have most important homelessness decisions looked at again.^[42] 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.^[42]

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.^[42]

Asking Wigan for a review. The council's allocations policy says requests for a review of a homelessness decision, or of an offer of accommodation, should go to the Homeless Solutions Team.^[40] Ask in writing — HST@wigan.gov.uk is the team's email — within the 21 days, even if you are still gathering your reasons, and keep a dated copy.^[28][42]

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.^[57]

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.^[54]