Emergency accommodation

Not everyone is entitled to emergency housing when homeless.

To qualify for emergency housing, you must:

• be legally homeless now
• meet the necessary immigration and residence conditions (also known as ‘eligible for assistance’)
• have a priority need for housing, or someone in your household must fall into a priority need group.

Emergency housing is a short-term option while we look into your housing situation. You could offer you somewhere in the form of bed and breakfast (B&B), a homeless hostel or a self-contained flat or house.

What happens next

Once an assessment is completed, if we are satisfied a person is eligible, homeless and in a priority need, the emergency accommodation duty will be triggered and the Homelessness Prevention and Relief Officer will request a placement.

When looking at your application, we will consider things like travel time to work, disruption to children's education and caring responsibilities. However, we may place you in emergency accommodation outside of Brent if there is a shortage of available accommodation.