Homeless help if you're 16 or 17

Which team at the council should help?

Social services are responsible for helping you if you're under 18 and homeless.

This council team is sometimes called children's services.

The council's homeless team must give you emergency housing if you go to them first.

Help from the homeless team

The homeless team must:

• give you emergency housing if you need it

• look at your situation and draw up a personal housing plan

• refer you to social services for a 'child in need' assessment

The homeless team cannot help if you do not meet immigration conditions. But they should refer you to social services for housing and support.

Help from social services

Social services can give you support and find you somewhere to stay if you:

• cannot return home and have nowhere else to live

• are unsafe in your home, for example, because of violence or abuse

• are staying with friends or another family and have been asked to leave

• are seeking asylum and have no family in the UK that you can live with

Will you have to go back to your family home?

If you ask for help, the council looks into your situation.

The council might speak to your parents or other family members to check if you can stay safely with them.

Your welfare is the top priority.

You should not be told to return somewhere where:

• you feel unsafe

• you're at risk of violence or abuse

• you've been told you cannot stay or must leave

If the council think you could go home or stay with someone else, they must make sure this option is safe. They should give you emergency housing while they check.

More on leaving home because of family problems.

Housing you might get

The council might offer you a place in a:

• hostel or foyer

• foster carer's home

• shared house with other young people

• volunteer's home through a scheme called Nightstop

You should accept what the council offers even if you do not want to stay there. You might not get anything else if you turn it down.

You should not be left without anywhere to stay if you're under 18 and homeless.

More on emergency options for homeless young people.

Help with rent and living costs

Social services usually help you with rent and other living costs.

You cannot usually get benefits if social services help with your living costs.

If social services do not support you, you can sometimes get benefits.

See Turn2Us: young people and benefits.

Housing help when you turn 18

If social services give you somewhere to live when you are 16 or 17, you count as being 'looked after' or 'in care'.

This means you get help to move into longer term housing when you turn 18.

If you're in care for more than 13 weeks, you can get support from social services until your 25th birthday. Full time students get help with housing during university or college holidays.

If you become homeless again after you turn 18

The homeless team should usually help with emergency housing if you're under 21.

This is because you have a priority need.

You have a priority need even if you only spend a few days in care while aged 16 or 17.