Homelessness

The armed forces are responsible for giving housing information and advice to service personnel up to the point of discharge. These services are delivered by the Joint Service Housing Advice Office and Veterans UK.

If you have served in the armed forces for a long period, or you have been medically discharged, you may be offered help by the Ministry of Defences resettlement staff.

However, you can also contact the Housing Solutions team if you think you will be homeless after discharge from the services or if you have already been discharged. The team will carry out a detailed assessment of your situation and you will be given a Personal Housing Plan. This plan will confirm the steps you need to take in order to secure suitable, affordable housing.

The Council must consider if it can help you using both rules that apply to everyone and special rules that apply to people who are currently serving or have served in the forces:

• in determining whether you are in priority need for housing, in addition to the usual tests that apply to everyone, we will consider if you have become vulnerable as a result of your time in the armed forces
• under the Councils Allocations policy, additional priority can be awarded for housing for some people with links to the armed forces who have an urgent housing need
• due to the requirement for movement within service, the council will not take into account whether you have a connection to the city when assessing your priority for social housing
• to be accepted as homeless you must be able to show that you have a local connection with the city through residing here, having family here or being employed here, in the same way as a civilian. However, you dont need to have a local connection to apply to go on the Councils Homeseekers Register if you are serving in the armed forces or left in the last 5 years