Homelessness
General information
Information from Portsmouth Housing Needs Advice and Support
What to do if you become homeless
Advice and help if you are sleeping rough
Shelter’s National Homeless Advice Service
Shelter’s National Homelessness Advice provide FREE expert advice, training and support to professionals working in local authorities, voluntary advice agencies and public authorities in England.
Visit the website.
Funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and delivered by Shelter, their team is available to help professionals and voluntary sector agencies deal with a wide range of issues that can impact on an individual’s housing situation, delivered in a way that is tailored to your level of knowledge and that can be practically applied in your role.
They offer a series of free 90-minute webinars via Zoom on subjects such as Casework skills: Good practice, Introduction to Welfare Benefits, Dealing with Landlord Harassment and Unlawful Eviction, Suspending a warrant, and Recognising Coercive Control.
Factsheets and public advice guides
Factsheets can be used by members of the public and professionals. Each factsheet aims to give a general overview of a particular housing or welfare subject, covering Benefit Cap, Bedroom Tax, Housing benefit (under 35s), Tenancy deposit schemes, illegal eviction and more.
Access the guides here.
Resources for professionals
Adult safeguarding and homelessness: A briefing on positive practice
The purpose of this briefing from the Local Government Association is to assist senior leaders, such as members of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs), as well as commissioners, practitioners and operational managers who are working across relevant sectors and agencies in this field, to support people who are homeless and at risk of or experiencing abuse or neglect. This briefing includes learning from SARs.
Adult safeguarding and homelessness: Experience informed practice
This briefing collates and disseminates examples of positive learning and practice from the different sectors involved, especially housing, health and social care, both statutory and third sector. The learning includes findings from the first national analysis of Safeguarding Adults Reviews and from recent thematic reviews of adult safeguarding and homelessness. The briefing captures what has already been learned and achieved by way of sector-led improvement and enhancement, and what priorities remain. It includes learning from experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most importantly, the briefing foregrounds learning from the voices of lived experience, in line with the commitment of making safeguarding personal.
Multiple Exclusion Homelessness: A Safeguarding Toolkit for Practitioners (prototype)
This is a toolkit for practitioners to use as an aid to fact finding and thinking where there are safeguarding concerns about any person experiencing homelessness. Access the toolkit here.