You are in hospital and you have housing concerns

The Salford Royal Hospital Discharge Homelessness Team can help you.

What is the Hospital Discharge Homelessness Team?

• We are a team of 2 housing officers who work for Salford City Council but are funded by the NHS.
• We work at Salford Royal Hospital and Meadowbrook Hospital.
• We work with patients who are homeless when they come into hospital, become homeless before they are discharged or have some other housing problem.

Do I have to contact you myself?

• If you let the ward know you are homeless or have a housing problem, they will refer you to our team.
• If you are brought to hospital by ambulance and the ambulance crew notice that you are homeless or that where you are living is not suitable for some reason, they will let the ward know and the ward will contact us. Once this happens we will come and speak to you.
• A social worker might tell us about you and your housing difficulties.
• A friend or relative might tell the ward about your situation if they know you are in hospital.

What are the reasons I may not be able to go home to my own property, straightaway?

• If you, a friend, relative or a professional have concerns about your home, the team looking after you might feel that it is not safe for you to go home straight away.
• This could be if your home needs repairs that make your house or flat unsafe for you.
• This could also be if your home needs some cleaning to be done before you go home.
• Your home may be too overcrowded with furniture and belongings which could cause falls or trips and this might need to be looked at.
• There are lots of reasons you might not be able to go home straight away and the Hospital Discharge Team will be happy to discuss this with you.

What happens next?

• One of the Hospital Discharge Housing Team will come and speak to you to discuss your housing situation.
• We will assess your situation. We might have to take a homelessness application from you. This means that we will ask you lots of questions about you and where you have been living and then we can talk about what we can do to help.
• If you have somewhere to live but can’t return there for some reason. We might accept what we call a ‘Prevention Duty’ for you. This means that we will try to help resolve your housing issue so you can go back home. We will do this if we find that your accommodation can be made suitable and safe for you to return to.
• If you are already homeless with no accommodation or we can’t solve your housing problem we may have to accept a ‘Relief Duty’ for you. This means that it is our job to solve your housing problem and hopefully get you re housed if necessary.

How might you prevent or relieve my housing problem?

The team can do different things to help, depending on what the issues are:

• We can try to talk to your landlord to see if you can return to your house or flat.
• If your home needs to be cleaned or tidied up before you can go back home, we will visit your property and assess the need for a clean and tidy. If we find this is needed, we can apply for money to have this work carried out but this will need your permission.
  We cannot always get funding for this work and you may be asked to pay some money towards all or some of the cost.  We will not enter your home or carry out work without your permission.
• You may need different accommodation in the longer term. If this is the case, we can assist and advise on how to join Salford’s Housing register. You will need to meet the qualifying conditions to join the register and we will advise you about the those conditions. We will also advise you on other housing options that are available.
• Your housing problem might not be preventing your discharge from hospital. If this is the case, we can point you in the direction of other services and offer advice and information about steps you can take once you are discharged.
• If needed we will decide whether or not we need to provide emergency accommodation for you but this can be Bed and Breakfast accommodation at first and is not always in Salford.

Who can we help?

• Anyone who has an address in Salford or works in Salford.
• Anyone who has a GP in Salford - but we will check where you have been living.

What if I am not from Salford?

• The hospital has a duty to refer you to the area where you normally live.
• They will fill in an online form to refer you to the homelessness team where you usually live.
• They can only do this with your permission.

What happens if I don’t qualify for emergency accommodation?

• If you don’t meet the requirements for this we will refer you for other accommodation schemes within the Council such as the A Bed Every Night Scheme (ABEN) or the Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI). Both schemes are voluntary and there is no duty or responsibility to provide accommodation, it is based on availability.
• If you can, we always advise that you try to stay with friends or family temporarily, whilst we work with you, as it is better to be in familiar surroundings with people that you know. Taking this option does not reduce the level of support you receive.