What happens next

Once we have confirmed your eligibility and circumstances, a caseworker will contact you to discuss your needs and/or schedule further appointments.  We aim to do this within 5 days, but there may be times when this can take longer.

Your initial Housing Needs Assessment 

To assess your housing needs, you may be invited to an interview at Access Croydon, see on Google maps.

Alternatively, we can arrange online or telephone assessments if needed. Please let us know of any reasonable adjustments you require to ensure we can support you effectively during the assessment.

What to bring

You will be required to bring relevant documents to your initial housing needs assessment, if you have not already done so. This is to enable us to make the necessary enquiries into your housing circumstances.

What happens during your initial housing needs assessment 

During your assessment, we will explain:

• the legal guidance we must follow to assess your application
• the stages of the application process
• the type of assistance you should expect from the council to help prevent or relieve homelessness
• the type of housing you should expect if we have a duty to assist you 
• if you are eligible for temporary accommodation whilst we assess your application
• we will develop a Personalised Housing Plan (PHP), which will outline the actions you need to take and how we will assist you; it will be updated as needed to reflect any changes in your circumstances

During the enquiry stage of your application, your caseworker may contact you to review and update your Personalised Housing Plan, or ask you to provide additional evidence to support your application. 

Please make sure you tell them about any change in your circumstances immediately, as this may lead to delays in assessing your application, or affect your assessment.

Enquiries we make on your application

You and any adult family member will be asked to provide signed consent for our enquiries to be carried out. Depending on your circumstances your caseworker may contact:

• the Home Office
• your current and previous employers
• your current and previous landlords
• benefit services
• your children’s schools
• your GP and medical professionals involved in your care
• credit check
• previous councils you have a connection with, or lived in
• the police and probation services

Any other reasonable enquiries for the purposes of assessing your application will be carried out in addition to this.

Supplying additional information

Once we have completed an initial housing needs assessment, you may be asked further questions about your housing situation and the support you require.

You will need to provide a range of documents throughout your initial assessments, so we can make the necessary enquiries about your housing circumstances and homelessness.

You may be asked to provide further evidence throughout the assessment period. This is so we can give you the housing advice and options you need.

We may not be able to help you in resolving your homelessness if you do not respond to requests for information in time. 

Assessment

At each stage of the assessment you will be advised in writing of the decisions made about your application.

Your caseworker will base their decision on: 

• the information you provided during your initial housing needs assessment
• actions identified in your Personalised Housing Plan
• documents submitted by you to support your application
• information gathered from enquiries into your case

We will advise whether your case is being considered under our prevention, or relief duty.

If we do not have a full duty to assist you, the decision will explain the reasons in detail and provide you with information on how to request a review.

If you do not agree with how the decision has been reached, you will need to begin to find your own accommodation if you are currently in temporary accommodation.

Your housing options

At the end of our prevention and relief duties, if you are still in need of housing, we will send you a Section 184 decision letter to confirm if we have a full duty to assist you with housing. 

If we have a duty to assist you, we will provide information about the available rehousing options. These may include long-term accommodation in the private rental sector, temporary accommodation, or, in some cases, social housing.

Please note that social housing is not guaranteed and may take several years to become available. While waiting for long-term accommodation in the private sector, temporary housing may be offered.

Due to the high demand and limited availability of affordable housing, we cannot guarantee that accommodation will be in your preferred location. Any housing offer will be assessed to ensure it meets the needs of you and your household as outlined in your application. If you have specific preferences for a property type or location, you may find it better to explore private rental options. 

To secure suitable accommodation, financial support may be available such as Discretionary Housing Payments. Your caseworker can provide advice on accessing support and guidance on finding affordable private rental properties.

If you refuse an offer of suitable accommodation our duty to assist you may end. 

If this happens, you will receive written notification explaining the reasons for our decision and information on how to request a review if you disagree. If you are currently in temporary accommodation, you will need to start making arrangements to secure housing independently.