Council Assistance
Broxtowe Borough Council’s Housing Options Team can help you in the following ways:
- Assessing your current housing situation and working out what your needs and requirements are
- Advising you on steps to take to avoid homelessness and stay in your home
- Being available for referral from partners and support services.
- If you have a physical or mental illness, if you are ex armed forces and homeless, a care leaver and homeless or if you have been released from prison and have nowhere to live, the Housing Options Team may be able to refer you to specialist support organisations that can help you.
- Referring you to specialist Domestic Abuse support
- Getting support from accommodation services, who can refer to legal specialists.
- Supported housing may be an option for you and the Housing Options Team can make referrals on your behalf in these circumstances.
- Helping you to make a housing plan so that you can work towards the next steps to find a permanent home.
If you are homeless now, or are threatened with being made homeless within the next 56 days please contact the Housing Options team for advice as soon as possible on 0115 9177777.
Process for Preventing Homelessness
We will register a homeless application for all eligible customers who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. From 1st April 2018, we will make every effort to prevent or relieve homelessness after registering an application before it makes a final decision on the application. This means that applications will be open longer whilst we try to assist each customer in preventing or relieving their homelessness.
If it is not possible to prevent homelessness in 56 days we will then help to relieve homelessness for another 56 days. We will also start to register applications for those who are threatened with homelessness within 56 days to ensure that more people are assisted as soon as possible. We will make our decision for whether people are owed the full housing duty at the end of the relief stage if the homelessness has not been resolved. We will continue to provide some customers with interim accommodation where applicable while we seek alternative solutions to their problems.
Make a Homelessness Referral (Duty to Refer)
This duty requires specified public authorities from 1 October 2018 to notify a Housing authority of service users they consider may be homeless or threatened with homelessness (It is likely they will become homeless within 56 days). The public authorities which are subject to the duty to refer are specified in the Homelessness (Review Procedure) Regulations 2018.
The public services included in the duty are:
- Prisons
- Young Offender Institutions & Youth Offending Teams
- Hospital Emergency Departments & inpatient care
- Jobcentre Plus
- Social Services Authorities
- Secretary of State for Defence
- Probation Services
Before making a referral, a public authority must have consent to make the referral and consent from the individual that their contact details can be shared so that the housing authority can contact them.
Referrals can be made via email, along with any supporting and additional documentation to dutytorefer@broxtowe.gov.uk
Specific Circumstances
Find more advice and guidance on housing options and homelessness and how we can help in these specific instances:
- Care Leavers
- Homeless After Leaving Hospital
- Homeless Ex-Forces Personnel
- Homeless When Released From Prison
- Mental Health and Homeless
- Domestic Abuse and Homelessness
- Deposit Guarantee Scheme
Homelessness Strategy
The Council is required to carry out a full review of homelessness in the borough at least every five years, and put in place a strategy to:
- prevent homelessness;
- provide help at the point of homelessness; and
- support the move away from homelessness.
View the South Nottinghamshire Homelessness Strategy 2017-2021
