EU citizens: Help from the council if you're homeless

Ask your local council for help if you do not have a place to live.

You need to meet immigration and residence conditions to get help.

Irish citizens

You can usually get homeless help if you've lived here for at least a month and plan to stay. This is called habitual residence.

The date you moved here does not usually matter. You do not need settled or pre-settled status.

The council should accept your passport as proof.

Settled status

You should get homeless help if you live here and plan to stay.

As most EU citizens with settled status have lived in the UK for at least 5 years, you usually meet this condition.

Pre-settled status

You should have a Home Office email which says you have pre-settled status.

You should be able to prove your immigration status on GOV.UK.

To get housing help, you also need to show that you're in one of these situations:

• working or self employed

• unable to work because of ill health

• pregnant or have recently given birth

• looking for work after working in the UK

• looking after a child at school in the UK

Working or self employed

You can get homeless help if you had 'worker or self employed status' under EU law.

The council looks at the number of hours you work and how much you earn.

You do not have to be in full time work or earn a set amount.

You could get help if, for example:

• you work part time hours

• you're on a zero hours contract

• you claim benefits to top up your income

Cannot work because of ill health

You can usually get homeless help if you've worked in the UK but cannot work at the moment because of illness or an accident.

This could include a longer term health condition or disability. You might need to show that you're likely to work again in future.

Pregnant or recently given birth

You can get homeless help if you're on maternity leave from your job or self employment.

You can also get help if you give up your job or stop looking for work because you:

• are in the late stages of pregnancy

• recently gave birth

Looking for work

You could get help if you lose your job.

But you should register with the jobcentre and start looking for work as soon as you can.

Children in school

You might get help if you look after a child who is at school in the UK.

Your child must have lived in the UK while you or their other parent was an EU worker in the UK. You do not need to be working now.

From 2 February 2023 this also applies if you or the other parent were self employed.

Family members of EU citizens

You should get homeless help if you have:

• settled status with the EU settlement scheme

• pre-settled status and meet the extra conditions for people with pre-settled status

If you do not meet the extra conditions, you should still get help if you are a family member of an EU citizen who can get homeless help.

You do not have to be an EU citizen yourself.

Need immigration advice?

Shelter cannot give immigration advice.

There are other charities who could help.

Citizens Advice can help with immigration problems or refer you to a specialist adviser. You can find immigration advice on their website.

The AIRE Centre has advice on rights for European citizens.

Advice in other languages

Roma Support Group offers phone appointments for Roma families and individuals. Advice is in Polish, Romanian and Slovak.

Settled gives advice and support to EU citizens who have made a home in the UK. Advice is in Bulgarian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak and Spanish.