You don’t need to accept help from Children’s Services. If you decline help from Children’s Services, the Council’s Housing Solutions Team still have a duty to help you.

At first, they will need to understand the problems leading up to your situation and try to help you to be able to stay at home to prevent you becoming homeless. If this isn’t possible, they may offer you emergency accommodation for a short time while they assess whether they can continue supporting you under the law.

If they can continue to support you they will make sure that you have accommodation. This accommodation is likely to be supported accommodation shared with others. Due to your age it is highly unlikely that you will be able to have your own accommodation as landlords only tend to rent to people who are over the age of 18 years.

You will have a Housing Key worker who will put a plan of support in place with you which likely will also include people you have in your network so that you can have the best possible support for your individual circumstances.

There is likely to be rules and boundaries that all young people living in the accommodation will need to comply with to keep everyone safe.

How do I pay for my accommodation?

If you are living independently (not at home) you will be helped to claim benefits that you may be entitled to. People over the age of 16 can apply for Universal Credit. This is for your rent and other day to day expenses you have such as food.

You will be responsible for paying your own rent. If you miss payments this can make it hard for you to rent a property in the future.