Homelessness prevention

This content applies to England only.

Shelter's work centres around preventing homelessness, both through our critical support services for people in housing need, and our campaigns to improve Government policies and services for homeless people.

We believe people should not be allowed to become homeless, and that to properly tackle the issue of homelessness, its causes need to be addressed.

The Government’s approach to preventing homelessness

The 2002 Homelessness Act brought in new requirements for local authorities to assess and prevent homelessness in their local areas, and marked the start of a renewed Government focus on homelessness prevention.

New housing applicants are now typically required to participate in an initial 'housing options' interview. This involves a discussion of ways in which their immediate housing need could be met, without a homelessness application being made. For instance:

• young people who have been living with family or friends and have been asked to leave may be offered mediation with a view to enabling them to return
• people who experience domestic violence are offered 'sanctuary schemes', involving the installation of security measures within the home
• young people leaving the family home may be offered supported lodgings schemes where members of the community provide a room as temporary respite accommodation
• a significant part of this new preventative approach involves referring households to the private rented sector, often facilitating the move through payment of rent deposits
• local authorities will also provide general housing advice on available services, housing options, housing benefit and rent arrears.

Shelter's view

The 'housing options' approach

Shelter strongly supports the provision of a wider range of housing options to those in housing difficulty. However, it is vital that the provision of such options does not prevent people from accessing their legal rights under homelessness law. Where there is a legal duty for local authorities to accept a homelessness application and provide temporary accommodation, households must be free to decide whether this is what they want, regardless of any other options that may have been identified.

The need for tenancy sustainment services

In many cases, advice is not sufficient to prevent homelessness. People in housing need often have significant problems - such as poor health, alcohol and drug misuse, and financial problems - that make it difficult for them to keep a tenancy and can result in recurring homelessness. Shelter believes that every local authority should have a tenancy sustainment service to help people, particularly those forced to use the private rented sector, with the practicalities of moving into their new home and maintaining their tenancy.

Boosting legal aid

Shelter believes that funding for civil legal aid should be increased to enable those facing possession proceedings to access independent legal advice.

The need for earlier interventions and more affordable housing

While Shelter welcomes support services to prevent people in crisis from losing their homes, we believe that if the Government is serious about preventing homelessness then more needs to be done at an earlier stage to stop people falling into crisis in the first place. In particular, better ongoing support needs to be made available for those who need it, and more affordable housing needs to be made available in areas where demand currently outstrips supply.

In particular, Shelter calls on the Government to build more social rented housing and to include specialist supported housing for those who need it.