Helping To Prevent Your Homelessness

Here at the Council we now have Housing Options Officers whose role is to try and get involved at an early stage, to work with those people who are in housing crisis and who may be in fear of losing their home.

What help can be provided?

The Officer will work with potentially homeless households and other parties to try and prevent the homelessness, and these include:

• Landlords
• Housing Associations
• Mortgage companies
• Housing benefits staff
• Debt agencies
• Other advice agencies
• Other support agencies
• Mediation, such as talking to Family, friends and relatives, if this is helpful

What if the Housing Options Officer cannot help?

We will make all efforts to prevent your homelessness. However there will be some cases where we are unsuccessful in stopping your homelessness. In these cases you will be treated as potentially homeless. In this case temporary accommodation may be provided whilst we look into your application. We will also look at what other options there may be for you.

What do I do next?

Call in or telephone as soon as possible. Bring with you information that you think we will need in order to assist you. This could include:

• Landlords contact details
• Mortgage company details
• Details of all your income & expenditure.

Other useful contacts:

Citizens Advice Bureau – Free housing advice
Tel. 0115 944 1646

Derbyshire Housing Aid – Free housing advice
Tel. 01332 297611
Freephone: 0800 318034

Hostels, Advice and Support services
www.homelessuk.org

Rapid Response Team – Out of hours emergency homeless service
Tel. 01773 728222

Shelter - Free housing advice helpline
Tel. 0808 800 4444