Advice if you are homeless now

If you know that someone is sleeping rough please report this to Streetlink so that the person can be offered assistance.

It’s urgent and you need a place to stay call the YMCA Rough Sleepers Outreach Team – 0800 130 3415. 

A range of services are also provided by the Burton and East Staffordshire Partnership - a group of organisations seeking to co-ordinate services specifically to rough sleepers.

If you are 16 or 17 and have nowhere to stay you can ask Staffordshire County Council or East Staffordshire Borough Council for help.

To help you decide who to contact see advice from Shelter.

Help from Staffordshire County Council

• To ask Staffordshire County Council for help, call First Response on 0800 13 13 126 or talk to a Local Support Team Worker, Social Worker, Careers Advisor or Youth Worker.
• Explain that you are asking the County Council for help because you are homeless and need somewhere to stay.
• The County Council will then have a duty to help you; it cannot just send you to the Borough Council.
• If you cannot return home, the County Council will find you somewhere to stay while it assesses your needs.
• Information on the County Council's service to people aged 16 or 17 is provided by Staffordshire Connects

Help from East Staffordshire Borough Council

• We have a duty to help you. However, we will have to refer your case to Staffordshire County Council as well, because the County Council is the lead agency for assessing and meeting the needs of 16 and 17 year olds.  Our response will be in line with the terms of a Protocol that has been agreed among all the Local Authorities in Staffordshire.  
• Please be aware that as a 16 or 17 year old you cannot hold a tenancy.

If you lose your emergency accommodation, your emergency options are:

1. Can you stay with family or friends?
2. Can you stay in a guest house or hostel?
3. Have you had to leave your own home due to an emergency - contact your buildings insurance provider to arrange emergency accommodation under your home insurance policy
4. Are you a woman who is leaving your home to escape domestic violence? If so, you may be able to stay at a Women's Refuge. Contact the Pathway Project on 01543 676800
5. Are you a single person from Staffordshire? Try Reconnect Burton 01283 547211 (very rarely a vacancy)
6. Are you a single person with a connection to another district? You may be able to access hostel accommodation in that district e.g.

• Derby hostels, Hostels Access Team, 01332 642150
• P3 Hostel, Swadlincote, 01283 819944
• Nottingham hostels, The Gateway, 0115 876 3300
• Birmingham hostels (if you are aged under 25), The Link, 0121 233 1508
• Birmingham hostels (if you are aged 25+), Hostel Finder, 0345 602 0549
• 90 Hope Street, Hanley, Stoke, 01782 279234
• Salvation Army Hostel, Stoke, 01782 744374
• YMCA Hostel, Stoke, 01782 864500
• Dawn Centre, Leicester, 0116 221 2770

7. If you have nowhere to stay, you cannot find anywhere yourself, and one or more of the following apply to you, then the Council can find short-term (interim) accommodation for you whilst it investigates your situation if it has reason to believe you are eligible, homeless and have a priority need such as:

• You have dependent children living with you, or
• You feel vulnerable because of old age, mental illness, disability, physical illness, you have been in care, in the forces, or in custody, you are fleeing violence, or for another special reason, or
• you can prove that you or a household member are pregnant, or
• you need accommodation because of an emergency such as a flood, fire or other disaster, or
• you are 16 or 17 years old and cannot return home

then the Council can find short-term (interim) accommodation for you whilst it investigates your situation if it has reason to believe you are eligible, homeless and have a priority need.

Depending on your circumstances and what is available this may, for example, be a Bed and Breakfast room out of the area. You will be required to make a reasonable contribution to the cost of the accommodation (or to make a valid claim for Housing Benefit).

If you belong to one of the categories listed above, have nowhere to stay, and will accept such accommodation, if at all possible, visit or call Housing Options during office hours without delay so that we can assist you in person;

If you lose your accommodation on a non-working day or after office hours and you have no-where to stay until the next working day, you can speak to our out-of-hours duty officer on 01283 508126 - please call as early as possible from 10am onwards.