Advice if you might become homeless

Leaving home or care, evicted, leaving hospital, leaving the armed forces, leaving prison, homeless due to relationship breakdown, homeless and elderly, homeless with a mental illness.

Contents

Asked to leave home by friends or family

Contact Surrey County Council Children’s Services as soon as possible if you are:

  • aged 16 or 17
  • being asked to leave the home of family or friends
  • have nowhere to stay

If you feel unsafe at home

Call 999 if you are in any immediate danger at home.

If you are living in fear because someone is being violent or abusive towards you, seek help immediately. There are a number of agencies who can assist you. You can find their details on our page about leaving home as a young person.

If you are experiencing problems at home

There is help and support available. Try to find someone you trust to talk to such as friends, extended family (for example an aunt or uncle), or a teacher at your school or college.

If the situation becomes worse, see if there is a place you can go to for a night or two to let everyone cool down.

No matter how bad things seem, if you leave home without preparation then you may find yourself in an even worse situation.

How we can help

If you are being asked to leave your home, we may be able to speak to your family about the problems. Contact us for help and advice.

We will work with you and the person asking you to leave by helping you to work out a solution, so you don’t have to leave home immediately. Leaving home is a major decision, and requires careful thought and planning.

If you apply to us for housing assistance because you are homeless in these circumstances, we may not necessarily be legally obliged to provide you with any accommodation. Even if we can assist, it is likely that we place you into private sector accommodation. 

Find out how to apply for housing if you become homeless.

However, we have a duty to:

  • assess the circumstances of your homelessness
  • identify your housing and support needs
  • work with you to try to prevent your homelessness or support you to find somewhere to live

We will provide you with a Personal Housing Plan, which will explain where we can assist and what you can do to help yourself. This might include appointments with Job Centre Plus or other organisations.