Housing Advice for those with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Issues
The information below is for people who are experiencing mental ill health or a learning disability who are seeking housing advice from Erewash Borough Council. It provides information on support that may be available to you to help you remain in your accommodation or finding somewhere else to live.
The Council can help with individuals who suffer from a mental illness or impairment and are threatened with homelessness. You can self refer to the service or if you don’t feel able you can ask your GP, support worker, health visitor, social worker or CPN to refer you to the Council’s service.
If you are threatened with homelessness
If you think you will be made homeless in the next 56 days and you cannot find your own accommodation, you can approach any local authority in England to ask for assistance. Providing you are eligible, the council will assess your needs and draw up a plan to help you to resolve your housing problem.
This plan will include steps that you and the council can take to find a solution to try to prevent you from becoming homeless. This could involve, for example, negotiating with your landlord, securing debt advice, maximising benefits or referring you to other relevant support services.
Erewash Borough Council Erewash Borough Council has a number of homeless prevention tools that we can use in order to prevent your homelessness. These include but are not limited to:
- Debt Advice
- Bond Guarantee Scheme
- Re-housing in private or social housing.
- Discretionary Housing Payments
- Referrals into supported accommodation
- Disabled Facilities Grant
If you are already homeless
If the Council cannot prevent you becoming homeless, and you have nowhere to go now your Housing Options officer will carry out an assessment to decide if you have what is referred to as a ‘priority need’. This means that that you are considered to be more vulnerable than the average person who is homeless and the likelihood of harm to you. One factor the council will consider is whether or not you are vulnerable so it is very important that you provide your officer with any information you wish them to consider. On the basis that you are suffering from a mental illness or impairment the Council could accept that you are vulnerable and in priority need for accommodation, depending on your personal circumstances.
If this is the case, we will provide you with suitable temporary accommodation, while we try and help you to find a more permanent solution. It is important to know that there is not a duty at this point to provide you with accommodation unless the Council considers that you have a priority need.
Whether you are vulnerable or not, we will try and relieve your homelessness and we will develop Personal Housing Plan with you to decide what housing is suitable. This is what is known as the relief duty. The relief duty to assist you lasts for up to 56 days and can be ended sooner if you refuse an offer of accommodation which the Council decides is suitable. If you are made an offer of accommodation please think carefully before refusing this as this may discharge the authorities duty to you.
Support Services
Information on where you may be able to access mental health or learning disability support services in your area is available on the Derbyshire County Council website.