If you are homeless or threatened with becoming homeless you should contact the housing advice team as soon as possible.
If you have lost or are in danger of losing your accommodation due to particular circumstances we may be able to help you find or stay in your accommodation by providing support, advice and services.
Such circumstances may include fleeing domestic violence, possession proceedings, eviction by a private landlord or being asked to leave by friends or relatives.
Our main duties are helping people avoid becoming homeless, and giving advice and assistance about available housing options within the city. The 1996 Housing Act (as amended by the 2002 Homelessness Act) also sets out the legal obligations a local authority has towards certain people who are homeless.
You can phone us on 01223 457918. If you need to speak to somebody out of office hours you can call 01706 242818.
Our duty to accommodate you
If the council finds that it has a duty to you then it will continue to provide you with temporary accommodation (subject to certain conditions) until such time as permanent accommodation can be secured.
If you do not fulfil each of the basic criteria (ie you are not homeless, eligible for assistance or in priority need, or you are intentionally homeless) then the council will only have a duty to provide advice and assistance on housing options that may be available within the city.
If you disagree with the council's decision regarding your situation, then you have a right to ask for a review of that decision. You must request this review in writing within 21 days of receiving the original decision letter.
When we can help you
If you are found to be homeless, eligible and believed to be in priority need, then the council has a duty to house you in temporary accommodation while it assesses whether you have made yourself intentionally homeless and where you have established a local connection.
You and your immediate family are legally entitled to accommodation if you meet each of the following criteria:
- you are homeless
- you are eligible for assistance
- you have priority need
- you are not intentionally homeless
- you have a local connection with Cambridge, or have no local connection with any other local authority
You are homeless
We will consider you to be homeless if any of the following apply to you:
- you have no legal rights to remain in your home
- you have accommodation that it is not reasonable for you to occupy
- you have no accommodation available for your whole household
- you have accommodation but are unable to secure entry to it
- you are homeless due to domestic violence
We will consider you to be threatened with homelessness if it is ikely that any of the criteria will apply to you within the next 28 days.
You are eligible for assistance
Certain categories of person are not eligible for assistance under homeless legislation, because they do not usually live in the UK or are subject to some form of immigration control.
If you are not eligible for assistance then the council has no duty to provide you with accommodation even if you are threatened with homelessness and in priority need.
You have priority need
We may consider you to be in priority need for accommodation if:
- you are 16 or 17 years old
- you are 18 to 20 years old and were accommodated by social services between the ages of 16 and 18
- you have dependent children who live, or might reasonably be expected to live, with you
- you or any member of your household is pregnant
- you are vulnerable as a result of old age, mental illness or physical disability, the risk of violence, or institutionalisation, ie following long periods of imprisonment or service in the armed forces
- you are threatened with homelessness as a result of an emergency such as flood, fire or other disaster
You might be considered vulnerable if you are less able to fend for yourself and find and keep accommodation, or more liable to harm, than any other homeless person would be.
You are not intentionally homeless
We may consider you to be intentionally homeless if you have deliberately done something or failed to do something, and as a consequence you have lost accommodation that was available for you and would have been reasonable for you to continue to occupy.
If you are found to have been unaware of any relevant fact then your actions cannot be considered to have been deliberate and you cannot be found to be intentionally homeless.
If you are found to have made yourself intentionally homeless then you will be asked to leave your temporary accommodation.
You have a local connection with Cambridge
If we establish that you have not made yourself intentionally homeless and that there is a legal duty to accommodate you, we would then establish where you have a local connection to decide which local authority should discharge this duty.
In order to establish a local connection with a particular area, at least one of the following criteria must apply to you:
- you have resided in the area for six of the last 12 months, or three of the last five years
- you are permanently employed in the area
- you have immediate family associations with the area (ie mother, father, brother, sister or adult children) who have lived in the area for at least five years
- you have special circumstances at the discretion of the local authority
If we cannot establish that you have a local connection with Cambridge but a local connection can be established with another local authority, then we will refer you to that local authority.
The issue of local connection will be discussed at your initial interview so you can decide whether or not to make a direct application to another local authority.