Homelessness: advice and support

Yes, we want to prevent you becoming homeless. We will help you find out if there are ways for you to keep your home.

We can help you with the cost of furniture removal and storage if you cannot afford to pay for removal and storage yourself. Normally, we will arrange for the uplift and storage of your property using a private removal firm.

The council has a number of schemes which can provide help, such as the Tenancy Setup Fund and the Furniture Leasing Scheme. There are also a number of organisations that we can make contact with to help you. These include local furniture supply and recycling projects. We will support you through this difficult time and give you advice about help you can get.

Yes. Contact the Housing Advice Team immediately. We have a duty to help you if it is likely that staying in your home will lead to domestic violence being threatened or committed against you or someone living with you.

The laws about homelessness are very complicated but 'homeless' broadly means having no housing that is reasonable for you and the people who normally live with you, to carry on living in. You are 'threatened with homelessness' if you are likely to become homeless within the next 2 months, for example, if you have been taken to Court by your landlord and the Court has said you must leave your home within 2 months.

If you have housing difficulties, wherever you are living at the time, contact the Housing Advice Team.

Housing support is a service to help you maintain or set up your home and meet any duties or responsibilities you have as a householder. Housing support encourages you to live independently in your home and gets you access to the other services like a dentist or a doctor. Housing support can help you live independently, give you confidence and help you to do things for yourself.

We need to ask you a number of questions to understand how we can help you. You may be asked about your previous address(es), why you can't live there any more, how you came to be homeless, your family circumstances, whether you have any medical conditions, and so on. You may also be asked to provide financial information if, for example, you have lost housing as a result of mortgage or rent arrears.

Assuming you are being evicted due to non-payment of rent, you should contact your local Housing Office immediately and they will give you advice. You will normally have to pay at least half your outstanding rent to avoid being evicted. You should also contact the Housing Access Service who will give you advice about finding alternative accommodation.

• Shelter: Advice and information on all aspects of housing and homelessness.
• The Scottish Housing Regulator: Inspects and reports on Scottish housing and homelessness services.
• The House Key: Scottish directory of housing support services. 
• Aberdeen Cyrenians: Provides a range of services to meet the needs of homeless people. 
• Aberdeen Foyer: Works with young people aged 16 - 25 to help alleviate homelessness and unemployment. 
• Scottish Homelessness Involvement and Empowerment Network