Facing Homelessness

What happens if I call?

When you call our advice line, your call will pass to an advice officer. They will take your details to get a basic understanding of your housing situation and give you suitable advice.

If we have reason to believe that you are threatened with homelessness, you will be booked in for a face to face appointment to fill out an application form for housing advice.  This appointment is not for applications to the Housing Register.  This appointment will be at Reigate Town Hall and generally lasts between 30 minutes to an hour depending on your situation. 

You need to bring documents to the appointment. These usually include:

• eviction notices
• mortgage details and associated correspondence
• court papers
• passport or other proof that you are entitled to live in England
• pregnancy certificate
• bank statements
• proof of income
• any proof of medical issues
• proof of where you have lived during the last five years
• your tenancy agreement

Once we have your application form and all documents, you will be allocated a case officer. 

You may be offered an appointment where you and your case officer will discuss your housing situation in detail and agree on potential solutions. If the Council has a duty to prevent or relieve your homelessness, you will be issued with a Personal Housing Plan (PHP) outlining steps you and the Council will need to take to try and resolve your housing difficulty.

Depending on your situation, the officer will propose various routes of assistance such as speaking with your friends or family in order to stop an eviction or speaking to your landlord to either stop or delay an eviction. This will give you more time to secure alternative accommodation, seek financial advice and other support.

This means that it is not only the Council that is responsible for resolving your housing problem.  You will be required to engage with your Housing Officer to find a solution.

Emergency accommodation

If all options fail and you become homeless, we may provide you with emergency accommodation if you are in priority need (see section 'Who we can help'). Emergency accommodation could be outside the borough due to limited local availability. 

You may be moved between emergency accommodation units depending on the needs of other homeless households and the flow of service demands.  Your case will be investigated for a 56-day period during this time to assess what further duties (if any) are owed to you.

We are unable to provide timeframes on how long you will be in emergency accommodation for. 

When your case has been fully investigated, the Council may accept a duty to house you long term.   If this duty is accepted, you will be nominated into temporary accommodation within the borough.  

If the Council accepts a full homeless duty to your household, you will be given one suitable offer of permanent accommodation in either the private sector or social sector. If you refuse the offer then the Council will end its duty to you under homeless legislation.

If we do not have a duty to offer you permanent accommodation

We will equip you with the relevant information and guidance to help you secure your own accommodation. If applicable, we can also refer you to hostels or supported accommodation.

• We may be able to offer you financial assistance to help you secure accommodation. You will need to meet certain criteria to be eligible. To find out more please call the Housing Team on 01737 276790.
• Visit our Guide to finding accommodation in the borough webpage where you will find detailed information on various routes you can take to find accommodation in the borough as well as advice and tips on: tenancies, money, affordable furnishings, repairs, emergency accommodation and much more.
• Look at hostels and night shelters for a short-term accommodation solution whilst you secure yourself permanent accommodation.