Housing advice and information services

Online housing information

The Get advice section on this website is full of answers to common housing problems. If these pages don't offer what you need, you can also get advice by email.

Housing advice helpline

Our free housing advice helpline on 0808 800 4444 is open, from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Last year, we answered 59,949 calls on a wide range of subjects, from problems with your landlord to finding a place to sleep and handling mortgage arrears.

Shelter advice centres

Shelter has a national network of 27 local advice centres offering expert information, advice and advocacy. Our advisers let people know what their rights are and explain their housing options. Advisers can also help clients negotiate with councils, landlords and lenders.

We also recognise that one problem can lead to another, so many of our local advice centres can help with:

• disability and/or care needs
• debt problems
• welfare benefits.

Specialist services in England

Children's Service

Tens of thousands of children in Britain are homeless. Growing up without a permanent home shatters their health, education and wellbeing. Homelessness leads to chronic insecurity, poor health, families at breaking point, and forces children to grow up on the edge of society: anxious, depressed and often out of school.

Shelter is tackling the shocking scale of this hidden problem with the Children's Service – our blueprint to end child homelessness.

Our dedicated Children's Service Advice Line is a free, confidential and independent service available to staff working in a range of children’s and families’ services  who are working with families affected by housing problems.

NHAS

The National Homelessness Advice Service (NHAS) is funded by Communities and Local Government. It offers advice providers the specialist support and professional resources they need to give appropriate, accurate and timely housing advice to people at risk of homelessness.

Homeless to Home projects

Homeless to Home projects in Sheffield, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bristol help families that have been living in temporary accommodation to settle in permanent homes. They offer advice, information and practical assistance to enable families to overcome the effects of homelessness and establish themselves in their new home and community.

Shelter Inclusion Project and Rochdale Borough Families Project

Shelter Inclusion Project is an innovative, integrated support-based service addressing antisocial behaviour throughout Rochdale. It offers a process of early intervention as well as measures to tackle more entrenched antisocial behaviour. Single people, with or without children, are supported alongside families.

Shelter has recently established the complementary Rochdale Borough Families Project. This service supports families with serious anti-social behaviour problems and very high levels of social need.

Sheffield Central Tenancy Support Service

Covering the central housing area of Sheffield, the service supports households to sustain tenancies. Through advice, practical assistance and information, the service aims to help people to overcome problems that may put their tenancy at risk.

Older Persons Housing Support

Shelter Older Persons Housing Support provides specialist housing-related help and advice to people over 55 in South West Sheffield. Shelter's service is designed to improve housing choice for older people and enable them to live as independently as possible in their own homes.

Ricochet

Ricochet provides accessible, free, independent, and expert housing advice and advocacy to young people up to the age of 25 in Rotherham.  The help provided ranges from advice on how to secure housing to representation at court possession hearings.

The project also runs a peer education service, where formerly homeless young people use their experiences to educate school pupils about the risks and dangers of becoming homeless.

Specialist services in Scotland

Scottish Housing Advisory Service (SHAS)

SHAS provides a helpline, training and information resources to promote capacity building among housing advice providers

Shelter Housing Support Services

These projects in Glasgow, Edinburgh, South Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway provide practical help and support for families moving from temporary to permanent accommodation - from getting settled in a new area to gaining the skills and confidence to maintain a tenancy.  The projects also work specifically with children and young people who have been homeless to enable them to thrive both educationally and emotionally.