Housing Advice and Support

Domestic abuse can affect anyone, regardless of age or gender. No one should suffer in silence and help is available whether you want to remain in your current home or move somewhere else.

If you cannot remain in your home because you're at risk of domestic abuse, you can submit a homeless referral to us. We'll help you find a temporary safe place to stay until a permanent place for you to live can be arranged.

Further advice and support for domestic abuse:

• National Domestic Abuse helpline or call 0808 2000 247
• National Centre for Domestic Violence or call 0800 970 2070
• Victim Support
• Citizens Advice
• The Bury Directory
• Safenet
• ManKind
• Men's Advice Line or call 0808 801 0327
• Women's Housing Action Group
• Women's Aid
• GALOP supporting LGBT+ community or call 0800 999 5428
• Shelter or call 0808 800 4444.

If you're under 16 years of age, your parents have a legal responsibility to look after you and make sure you have somewhere safe to stay.

If you feel you cannot stay or you feel that you're at risk if you do stay, please contact children's services on 0161 253 5454.

If you're considering leaving home for the first time, you'll need to prepare yourself for your new lifestyle and responsibilities, such as:

• paying bills
• travelling to work, college or further education
• whether you'll be living alone or in a shared house.

You might find these factsheets and support services useful, to help you prepare for adulthood:

• Leaving care services
• Help for care leavers factsheet
• 16 and 17 year olds factsheet
• Young people over 18 years old factsheet

If you're over the age of 16 and you've been staying with family or friends or you're a lodger and have been asked to leave, you'll probably have to leave unless the person agrees for you to stay longer. You could ask if you can stay longer, until you've found somewhere else to live.

In these circumstances you have very few rights, but you could ask for reasonable notice to leave which would give you more time to find somewhere else to stay.

If you've been asked to leave and:

• you have nowhere else to stay, please contact us immediately to see how we can help you
• you have found somewhere to stay temporarily, you should contact us to discuss your ongoing housing options.

If you've left the Armed Forces or are planning to leave, you could be entitled to extra help if you become homeless.

As a current or previous serving member of the Armed Forces, you can join the housing register where you could be given priority for urgent housing needs if you're a:

• former member of the Armed Forces
• serving member of the Armed Forces and you need to move due to a serious injury, medical condition or disability as a result of your service
• bereaved spouse or partner of a member of the Armed Forces and you're leaving service accommodation
• serving or former member of the Reserve Forces and you need to move due to a serious injury, medical condition or disability as a result of your service.

You may also find useful information on:

• Armed Forces personnel
• Veterans' Gateway
• SSAFA Armed Forces Charity
• Royal British Legion.

Your Probation Officer or prison staff will offer you housing options advice, such as:

• helping to ensure you don't lose your current home when you go into custody
• planning for your release.

If you're due to leave prison and need help with accommodation, please discuss this with your Probation Officer or prison staff. You might also find these factsheets and other online advice useful:

• help with housing when leaving prison on the Shelter website.
• housing advice on the Citizens Advice website.
• Keeping your home factsheet
• Housing on release factsheet

If you're in hospital and will be homeless when you're discharged as a patient, you should tell your hospital nursing staff. They'll be able to refer you to the Hospital Discharge Team, who will assess your situation and will try to help you. They may refer you to our Homeless Assessment and Support service.

If your home needs to be adapted to help you continue living at home after you've been discharged from hospital, the hospital will refer you to our Adult Social Care services for home adaptations or a Disabled Facilities Grant.