Preventing homelessness

Changes in legislation

On the 3 April 2018, the law changed with the implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. This means that in most cases all Local Authorities in England will have a duty to either prevent or relieve your homelessness. There's also an expectation that you'll cooperate with us so that we can find the best solution for you.

If you're homeless or threatened with homelessness, we may be able to help.

If you’re threatened with homelessness within 56 days or have a Notice from your landlord, then we may have a duty to prevent you from becoming homeless. We can do this by:

• Helping you remain in your existing home
• Helping you access alternative accommodation before you become homeless

We'll always try to prevent you from becoming homeless in the first instance. There's lots of services to help you to stay in your current home, which can include help with benefits advice alongside mortgage advice if you own your own home, debt advice and negotiation with your landlord.

If staying in your current home isn't an option, we can help you look for a new home or other alternatives. If you've looked at all our options but think you could still become homeless, you may be entitled to our help. Please contact us for more information.

Are you are homeless, or likely to lose your home soon?

If you're experiencing financial difficulties because of new benefit changes such as Universal Credit, the Bedroom Tax, Benefit Cap or Local Housing allowance, we can help you with:

• Budgeting and managing your money at home
• Getting a smaller, more financially manageable home

Do you rent privately?

We can also:

• Help if you're being harassed or threatened by your landlord, or if you have been locked out of your home, evicted or if the rent is being increased
• Work with you and anyone who might try to make you homeless, to resolve your housing problems

Assistance with finding a home

We can help you with:

• Your Devon Home Choice housing application
• Looking at the housing options available to you, including temporary accommodation or private housing
• Finding somewhere to stay tonight, in an emergency, when you have nowhere else to go

Are you experiencing financial difficulties?

Then we may be able to help in a number of ways including:

• Access to debt advice
• Access to benefits advice
• Access to benevolent funds
• Help to deal with rent arrears to prevent you from being evicted
• A one-off payment to assist with an emergency housing situation