If you were recently released from prison, find out about services that could provide practical support and help you find accommodation. You could also apply to the Council for housing assistance as a homeless person.
If you apply for housing assistance because you are homeless, we might not necessarily be legally obliged to provide you with accommodation. Our duty to you may be limited to providing you with advice and assistance and not accommodation. For a council to be legally obliged to provide you with accommodation it will have to be satisfied that you are eligible, homeless, in priority need and that you have not made yourself intentionally homeless.
In some circumstances, the Council might decide you are in priority need because of the time you have spent in prison or on remand. The council will consider whether you should be regarded as being vulnerable by virtue of the fact that you are homeless.
The fact that you have been in prison does not in itself mean that the Council has to treat you as being vulnerable and in priority need for accommodation. We will need to assess the evidence and be satisfied that you will find it difficult to seek out and maintain accommodation for yourself compared to other people who are rendered homeless.
Find out more detailed information here on being homeless when release from prison here. [53KB]
