Homelessness and prevention

If you are homeless, threatened with homelessness, or would just like advice on what housing options are available to you, you should go to one of our Customer Service Points.

Advisors there can assess your situation and give you the most appropriate advice for your situation. If your case requires more specialist housing advice, they will refer you on to the Housing Advice Team, who can help you in a number of ways:

• By giving you advice and assistance on finding accommodation in the private rented sector (with a private landlord) or referring you to a Housing Association.
• We can visit you where you are staying and discuss ways that may stop you becoming homeless either with yourself or your accommodation provider.
• If you are in hospital we can visit you to assess your housing options before you are discharged.
• By linking you to other services within the council, we can help prevent you from becoming homeless.
• We can refer you for help to keep your own accommodation. This may be in the form of a Tenancy Support Worker, or a Tenancy Relations Officer.
• We can refer you to various support services that could assist you where you live.
• If you are a young person who needs to leave your family home, we can contact mediation services, give you advice and guidance on independent living, or put you in touch with youth housing projects.
• If you have been the victim of domestic abuse or violence, we can put you in touch with organisations who can help you.
• We will allocate a caseworker to guide you through the process.
• We may provide emergency accommodation to those who are homeless, but this is a limited service and only available to those in priority need.

If you are a professional agency and wish to refer someone for housing advice, please fill in a housing advice referral form (pdf, 157 KB) and forward either by fax or email to the contact information given at the end of the form.

There is a shortage of council housing in Bristol, so we cannot immediately assist everyone who has a housing problem. Bristol City Council therefore tries to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, and help you stay in your existing home. If this is not possible, we will try to work with you to come up with a solution and options to make sure that you have a safe place to stay, and preferably avoid the use of emergency accommodation.