Personal housing plan

This page looks at why you are given a personal housing plan if you apply for help as homeless.

You can apply to the council for help if you are homeless or likely to be homeless in the next 8 weeks.

How much help you will get depends on your circumstances.

Creating a personal housing plan

After you apply for help the council will assess your housing and support needs.

This will include looking at what you can afford and any particular needs you have, for example relating to your health.

We will then draw up a personal housing plan for you.

The aim of the personal housing plan is that you and the council work together, for no less than 8 weeks, to try to help you keep your current home if it is suitable, or to find you somewhere to live.

You should be given a copy of your personal housing plan. Not everyone gets a personal housing plan.

If you don't meet immigration and residence conditions the council only has to give you general advice and information.

What's in your personal housing plan

Your personal housing plan contains steps for you and the council to take. Some of your steps will be compulsory, others are 'recommended'. All the steps should be reasonable.

Emergency accommodation

If it's likely you are homeless, meet immigration and residence conditions and are in 'priority need' the council must provide you emergency accommodation, so you have somewhere to stay while you and the council work on the steps in your personal housing plan.

Agreeing the steps

The steps in your plan should take account of your wishes. The council will ask you to agree to the steps in your plan.

Explain clearly if you think a step is not reasonable, for example because it isn't practical or realistic for you.

Examples of reasonable steps

Your steps might be to:

claim benefits
look for an affordable private tenancy, you may be asked to widen your search area if you can't afford where you are
work with a service that can help you

The council's steps might be to:

negotiate with your landlord for you to stay in your current home
arrange mediation if your parents/family have said you cannot live at home
increase security at home if you want to remain there but are at risk of violence
help you claim benefits to help you pay your rent and pay off arrears
give you a list of landlords to contact (or contact them for you if you can't do it)
provide a deposit

Updating your personal housing plan

The council should change the steps in your personal housing plan if they are no longer reasonable or your circumstances change.

Tell the council why you think a step in your personal housing plan should be changed or removed.

Co-operating with the personal housing plan

The council can stop helping you if we decide you have deliberately and unreasonably refused to take a compulsory step in your personal housing plan.

We can only do this after we have given you a written warning and given you reasonable time to do what is asked.

If you still don't, the council has to write to you again.

Challenging the council's decisions

You can ask the council to review a decision:

about its own steps in your personal housing plan if you think there are other actions it should take which would help you
to stop helping you after 8 weeks, if you think it didn't do enough to follow its own steps in your personal housing plan
that you have deliberately and unreasonably not cooperated with it

You must ask for a review within 21 days of the council's decision. If you are on a low income you may qualify for legal aid to help you, visit GOV.UK - Check legal aid for more information.