Homelessness means not having a home – most people who are homeless don’t sleep on the street! Even if you have a roof over your head you can still be homeless. This is because you may not have any rights to stay where you live or your home might be unsuitable for you due to severe overcrowding or other reasons. So you don’t have to be living on the street to be homeless. You may be legally classed as homeless if you are sleeping on a friend’s sofa, staying in a hostel, suffering from overcrowding, or other bad conditions.
If you ask the council for help, they will look into your situation to see if the council has a legal responsibility to help you as a homeless person.
Anybody could become homeless for many different reasons. These could include:
- Being evicted by the person who owns your property. Usually the Landlord
- Becoming unemployed
- Your health could affect your living arrangements
- Family break up’s
- If you have a Fire or Flood you may not be able to live in your home.
Listen….the most important thing is that there are people who can help. You can call Shelter on: 0808 800 4444
8am-8pm Monday-Friday
8am-5pm Saturday-Sunday
Calls are free from UK landlines and main
mobile networks (Virgin, Orange, 3, T-mobile, Vodafone and O2).
They will answer your call as quickly as they can and treat it confidentially. The helpline gets very busy at times, but please keep trying. Calls are recorded for training purposes.
Shelters advisers can:
- give you immediate, practical assistance
- explain your rights
- offer advice and guidance
- suggest specialist or local support services to help you longer term