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Cymraeg

Homelessness advice and prevention

It is stressful and worrying to be homeless or at risk of it. The sooner we know about your situation, the likelier it is that we can help, and prevent you from becoming homeless. Please tell us as soon as possible if you think you might become homeless.

People threatened with homelessness

Being ‘threatened with homelessness’ means you will not have a home within the next 56 days. For instance, you may have a home now, but if you have been asked to leave, you may be deemed ‘threatened with homelessness’. If you are at risk of homelessness, you have the right to early assistance.

Tell us that you are homeless or at risk of homelessness

Notify us about your homelessness situation online.

Visit the Housing Jigsaw Portal by the above button. While there, you can create an account where you can:

  • conveniently view your Personal Housing Plan online, which is the roadmap we will create to help you get accommodation
  • find out what information you need to give us so we can help you
  • update your contact information so we can get hold of you to provide help when needed
  • update us on your progress with the tasks we have given you, which is easier to do online

Alternatively, you could tell us by calling or visiting via the below details:

Contact

Bridgend County Borough Council
Telephone: 01656 643643
Address: Civic Offices, Angel Street, Bridgend, CF31 4WB.
How we process your case

When you notify us, you will be able to complete some of the application sections yourself. However you can only go so far with your application before being told that a Housing Solution Advisor will contact you to complete the rest. The Housing Solutions Team will be told when you notify us about being homeless or threatened with it.

Within 48 hours, the advisor will contact you to discuss your situation over the phone or invite you to a meeting at the Civic Offices. In the meeting, we:

  • will listen to you and find out all the information we need to know about your situation
  • will complete an assessment of your situation and work with you to identify what steps are needed to solve your housing problem
  • may ask you to provide some paperwork

To help you, we need you to be open and honest with us and help us by giving information we ask for. We will also be open and honest with you. Please mention any particular issues you think we should be aware of, which may include:

  • debt
  • learning difficulties
  • mental health problems
  • anything else that you think is important

We will keep you informed about how your case is going.

 

This depends on your situation. If you are at risk of homelessness, it might be that we help you to stay in your home. However, you won’t be forced to stay if it isn’t the right option. We may also help you by looking for other accommodation. If this is not possible we will help you find somewhere else to live that suits your needs.

We will work with you to create a Personal Housing Plan which has all the steps for solving your housing issue. However we may not be able to identify all the steps straightaway. If we cannot form the plan immediately, we promise to get back to you as soon as possible. The exact steps will depend on your circumstances, and may include actions like:

  • talking to your landlord to try to sort out any problems
  • mediation to resolve family arguments
  • help with start-up costs for a new tenancy
  • referring you to support services

If you need somewhere else to live, we may look at whether there is suitable, affordable private rented accommodation.

If we agree that you are homeless, we will take all reasonable steps and work with you to find suitable, affordable accommodation. We have 56 days to do this.

If you need immediate accommodation, we will need to consider whether you qualify for temporary housing. We will provide it if we think you might be in a ‘priority need group’ who have a particular need for help according to law. The advisor will discuss whether you are in this group.

At every stage of homelessness, we will send you an advice letter which you can access on the Housing Jigsaw Portal.

If your advisor has done everything they told you they would do, we will continue to help you look for a new home provided that:

  • you have done everything that you have been asked to by your advisor
  • your homelessness is not through any fault of your own

Also we will investigate and confirm if you are in a ‘priority need group’.

Find housing help on Dewis Cymru.

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