Housing advice for people being asked to leave accommodation provided by family or friends

Specific advice for 16/17 year olds

Urgent and risky situations

If you are a young person, in an emergency, you should contact Ealing Children’s Integrated Response Service (ECIRS as a matter of urgency)

An emergency situation can include becoming homeless because you have been asked to leave your home. It also includes any situation where you are at risk of violence or abuse.

If you are at immediate risk, you should call the police emergency number 999.

Problems and arguments in the home

If you are aged 16 or 17 years, or you are the parent or guardian of a 16 or 17-year-old and you are experiencing difficulties in your situation at home, you should contact the SAFE team for support and advice as soon as possible. SAFE stands for Supportive Action for Families in Ealing. The service can help your family to resolve problems and conflicts in your home.

Help from Ealing Council’s housing solutions team

Being asked to leave by friends and family is one of the biggest causes of homelessness in England. A much better outcome can be achieved if a way can be found to stay in your current accommodation, or if you have to move, it is done in a planned way.

We recognise that living in a multi-generational home or staying temporarily with friends can be extremely difficult, but it is almost always better to stay if possible until you are able to plan a move. The only exception to this is if staying in the home is unsafe due to a risk of violence or abuse.

First point of contact

If you are being asked to leave your current accommodation, we advise you to seek help as early as possible. If you are 17 years old or younger, your first contact point should be the children’s social services team. Their contact number is 020 8825 8000.

Children’s social services will consider your situation and will offer early help, to try to stop your becoming homeless. They may also refer your case for discussion at a special panel meeting between children’s social services and housing officers.

Their first approach will be to see whether they can help you to remain safely in your home and they will use mediation and negotiation skills and will work with you and the person who is asking you to leave by providing practical ideas to help you all try and work out a solution, so you don’t have to leave home immediately.

If the children’s social services team can’t help you to remain at home, they may have a duty to help you with other accommodation. If you are not in need of their support, they may refer you to the housing solutions team for support in finding a new home.

The housing solutions team

Generally, leaving home is a major decision and requires careful thought and planning.

If you are referred to the housing solutions team for support because you are homeless in these circumstances, we will not necessarily be legally obliged to provide you with any accommodation.

However, we will have a duty to assess the circumstances of your homelessness, to identify your needs, and to work with you to try to prevent your homelessness or support you to find you somewhere to live.

We will provide you with a personal housing plan which will tell you what we can do to help you and what you can do to help yourself. This might include actions such as attending appointments with our employment and skills team or looking for private rented accommodation.

For Ealing Council to be legally obliged to provide you with accommodation, we would need to be satisfied that you are eligible, homeless, in priority need and, for longer term help to be offered, that you have not made yourself intentionally homeless.

It is important to be aware that even if we can assist you, it is likely that we would help you into accommodation in the private sector.

The best way to get advice is to come in person to Ealing Council at Perceval House, 14/16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, W5 2HL between 9am to 4pm from Monday to Friday.

We will either give you advice on the day you visit us, or after making an initial assessment of your circumstances, will make an appointment for you to see an advisor at a later date.

Please note that on the second Wednesday of each month Perceval House opens at 10am.