Housing Options and Homelessness Team
The Council has a responsibility to help anyone making a claim of homelessness. Help is provided by the Housing Options and Homelessness Team. The team offers a free and confidential service on a wide range of housing matters for people who live in the district and works in partnership with other housing and support related service providers to help prevent homelessness.
The Council's duties depend on a fair and reasonable assessment of each person's circumstances and sometimes we will need information from other people to help us make a decision.
The team provides early and expert advice to help prevent homelessness and we provide practical advice and information about the housing options that are available within the local area.
If you think you are going to be homeless or threatened with homelessness please make an appointment to see someone from the Housing Options and Homelessness Team.
Appointments to see an adviser at Council Connect at the Guildhall, High Street, Bath BA1 5AW can be booked in advance by phoning 01225 396296. In an emergency people can be interviewed immediately. We also offer appointments at Council Connect at The Hollies in Midsomer Norton on Tuesday mornings 9.30 til 12.30.
Opening times:
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 8.30am - 5.00pm
Wednesday 9.30am - 5.00pm
Friday 8.30am - 4.30pm
If you need help outside of office hours, please contact the emergency duty team on 01454 615165.
We provide a range of Housing Factsheets and leaflets for you to download.
The Housing Options and Homelessness Team provides a free and confidential advice service on a wide range of housing matters for people who live in the Bath and North East Somerset area.
We aim to treat the people we see with dignity and respect whatever their circumstances. We will interview you in a private room and you can bring a friend or advisor with you whenever you see us.
If you are unable to come to our offices we will arrange to visit you at home or in a safe environment that you can get to.
The housing adviser who sees you will become your caseworker and will work with you for as long as you need to sort out your housing problems.
Advice
You can expect accurate up to date advice. If we feel you need to speak to a specialist agency we will enable you to do so. We will also refer you to another, more appropriate agency if we feel our position as a Council service would compromise the advice we are able to give you.
Confidentiality
The Council has policies on Data Protection and Freedom of Information. We will only ask you for relevant and not excessive information that we need to assess your housing needs. The information will be kept secure. We share restricted information about you with housing associations to help you get housed. You will be interviewed in a private room to ensure your privacy.
Equal Opportunities
You can expect everyone in the Housing Options and Homelessness Team not to discriminate against anyone because of their gender, race, sexuality, disability, age, nationality, religious belief, political belief or any other reason. If you have a special reason why you want to be interviewed by a male or a female officer we will arrange this for you. The Council has an Equal Opportunities Policy.
Acceptance
We are here to listen and assist you. We will not form judgements on your character or feelings.
Keeping appointments
If you cannot attend an appointment please tell us so that our time is not wasted and another appointment can be made.
Telling us the facts
We try to give fair and realistic advice and we need you to tell us about your housing problems and circumstances. We expect you to provide any documents that we ask for as quickly as possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to remember all the facts and we understand this but you must not give us false information. You can be prosecuted if you provide false information to get housed.
Reasonable behaviour
We believe that everyone should be treated fairly and in an environment free from the threat of abuse.
Do not use racist and sexist comments or any other offensive comments or abuse or threatening behaviour. Anyone who persists in making offensive comments or who makes a member of staff feel threatened could be asked to leave an interview.
We expect everyone not to smoke or drink alcohol when being interviewed.
We want to know if we have got something wrong. You can ask to speak to a Manager or write a complaint using the leaflet 'Making a Complaint about Council Services' which is available from any of the Council offices.
You can expect your complaint to be dealt with promptly, fairly and without affecting any future contact between you and the Housing Options and Homelessness Team.
This information can be made available in a range of languages, large print, Braille, on tape, electronic and accessible formats. Contact the Information Officer on 01225 477983, Minicom 01225 477043 or email information_officer@bathnes.gov.uk
Customer Service Standards
See our Customer Service Standards.