Homelessness Advice

If you are homeless or threatened with homelessness within the next 8 weeks our Housing Solutions Team will:

assess your situation
provide you with a Personal Housing Plan

Your Personal Housing Plan will set out reasonable steps for you to take to prevent you becoming homeless, or to help you find somewhere to live.

Although we may have a duty to prevent your homelessness, or support you to find somewhere to live, this doesn’t mean that in all cases we have a duty to provide accommodation itself.

Chronic shortage of housing – If you are homeless you are very unlikely to be offered a council or housing association property due to the chronic shortage of housing. There are approximately 2000 households in Tendring who are currently on the Housing Register and there are very few available properties. The help we are likely to offer you if you are homeless is advice and support for you to find privately rented accommodation.

If you are homeless, and you do not have a local connection to Tendring, you may be referred to a local authority where you do have a connection (unless you are at risk of violence or domestic abuse in that area).

Complete an on-line Self-Referral form

If you are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless within the next 8 weeks you need to register and complete a self-referral form to Tendring following the link below:

Housing Jigsaw – register online for homelessness advice

We will contact you once we have received your form to advise you of the next steps, which may include a telephone appointment with a Housing Solutions Officer.

When we contact you, we may need to ask you a lot of questions in order to fully understand and assess your circumstances. We will also ask you to provide some or all of the following documents:

Proof of ID for all household members, such as passport or birth certificate
Tenancy agreement
Any notice served by your landlord
Proof of pregnancy or any medical conditions
Bank statements, wage slips and benefit letters

It is important for you to be open and honest at your assessment so we can give you the correct advice and support.

Accommodation Found

Feel free to fill in our Details of Accommodation Found form

If you are not homeless but need advice & support

If you are not threatened with homelessness within the next eight weeks, you can seek further advice below:

Duty To Refer

From 1 October 2018 certain public authorities are required to notify a housing authority of service users they consider may be homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days. The public services included in the duty are as follows:

Prisons;
Youth offender institutions;
Secure training centres;
Secure colleges;
Youth offending teams;
Probation services (including community rehabilitation companies);
Jobcentre plus;
Social service authorities;
Emergency departments;
Urgent treatment centres; and
Hospitals in their function of providing inpatient care;

The Secretary of State for Defence is also subject to the duty to refer in relation to members of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marine, the regular Army and the Royal Air Force.

If you are one of the above public bodies and you wish to make a referral then please follow the link to our referral system called ALERT.

ALERT is a free tool provided to all Local Authorities in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It supports partnership working by providing a secure and easy to use platform for making referrals including the new 213B duty placed on specific public bodies.

If you are unable to access ALERT then please send your referral to dutytorefer@tendringdc.gov.uk including as much information about your client as possible.

Further guidance and a simple form template is available on www.gov.uk if you are not able to refer through our referral system ALERT.

What Happens Next?

All referrals to Tendring District Council will be reviewed and contact will be made with the client within 5 working days. If we are satisfied that the client is eligible for help and they are either homeless now, or threatened with homelessness within 56 days, they will be offered an appointment for a full assessment. If the client is not homeless they will be provided with the appropriate advice and assistance.

Further Information

Agency Guide to making a referral using ALERT

Gov.uk - A guide to the duty to refer

Rough Sleepers

If you are sleeping rough please call our contact centre on 01255 686868 and ask to speak to the Housing Solutions Team.

If you wish to report someone sleeping rough please report this via streetlink www.streetlink.org.uk

Useful Documents

Homelessness Data Privacy Notice

Homeless Reduction & Rough Sleeping Strategy

Severe Weather Emergency Protocol 2020

Homelessness Reduction Act

The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) sets out the way we deal with any eligible person who is at risk of homelessness. Helpful guidance explaining the Act can be found in fact sheets produced by the Government.

It is important that you seek advice as soon as possible if you are homeless or going to be made homeless. General self help advice is available on this website.

Support In Your Home

The Essex Outreach Support Service offers support to people living in Essex who are experiencing a range of problems that are impacting on their health, housing or financial wellbeing.

They can help with a range of different things such as:

Benefit claims and advice
Support for drug and alcohol problems
Help with managing rent arrears
Getting support with mental health
Help with managing money and budgeting
Care and support options in Essex
Health and wellbeing

For further information please call Peabody on 0800 288 8883

Or access their website for further information: https://www.peabodycareandsupport.org.uk/essex-outreach-support/