You do not have to be sleeping on the streets to be legally homeless. You may be considered homeless if you are staying somewhere unsafe or somewhere you have no legal rights to stay.

Children's Social Care team at Cambridgeshire County Council will do an assessment to see if you are a 'child in need'. This is a legal term that refers to children and young people. If they assess you as a child in need they can help you with housing, education, substance abuse, money and other support.

Advice if you are leaving care

There are many organisations ready to support young people who are leaving care, and who are seeking housing advice from us. Find out what help is available for you, ideas for finding somewhere to live, and advice for making a successful home of your own.

For more advice visit our support for care leavers page.

Cambridgeshire County Council Leaving Care Team

The County's Social Care team will help care leavers in Cambridgeshire to prepare for becoming an adult and developing your independence. You will be entitled to this support up to the age of 21 (or longer, if you are in full-time education), if you have been 'Looked After' for 13 weeks from the age of 14, and for at least a day following your 16th birthday. The Leaving Care Team is based at Scott House, 5 George Street, Huntingdon PE29 3AD, and can be reached on 01480 372463.

Staying Close, Staying Connected

Staying Close, Staying Connected is a project focused on supported young people leaving residential care in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. The project provides Moving On Houses and work with care leavers up to the age of 25. They also offer help with training and employment opportunities. You can contact the team on 01603 670 100 or by emailing scsc@break-charity.org.

Centre 33

All young people need support sometimes. Centre 33 is an advice service for anyone under 26 years old. They are located at 33 Clarendon Street, Cambridge, CB1 1JX and are open Monday to Wednesday 10am to 5pm, closed on Thursday, and open Friday to Saturday 10am to 1:30pm. Their Housing and Living Skills worker can be reached on 01223 316488.

The following organisations that specialise in helping young people may also be able to help you:

Centrepoint: 0808 800 0661

Coram Voice: 0808 800 5792

Depaul Nightstop UK: 0207 939 1235

Getting on the housing register (Home-Link)

Affordable housing is in very short supply in Cambridgeshire. However, we do accept applications onto the Home-Link scheme from anyone who is eligible, and who can demonstrate a local connection. If you are leaving the care of Cambridgeshire County Council, you will have a local connection to every local housing authority within Cambridgeshire, even if your care placement has been outside the Council’s boundaries. Cambridgeshire districts include Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council and Fenland District Council.

Find out more from our apply for housing webpage.

Threatened with homelessness

If you think you will be made homeless in the next 56 days, and you cannot find your own alternative accommodation (despite the help of the agencies mentioned above), you can approach any local authority in England, and ask for assistance. Provided you are eligible, the council will assess your needs, and draw up a plan to help you resolve your housing problem.

This plan will include the steps that you and the council will take to find a solution. This might involve, for example, ensuring you have approached all the right agencies in the right way, maximising benefits, or getting help with training or work.

The Single Homelessness Service helps single people with low support needs into shared houses

If you are homeless

If we are satisfied that you are eligible, and do not have accommodation anywhere that you have a right to occupy, and can gain access to, we will try to help you resolve your homelessness. As a care leaver, we would decide if you are more vulnerable than an ordinary person, and may decide you are in a priority need group as a result. If this is the case, we will provide you with temporary accommodation, while we try to help you find a more permanent solution.

Whether you are vulnerable or not, we will try to relieve your homelessness for a period of 56 days.