If you are a public authority in England, you must tell us about service users who are homeless, or at risk of being homeless.
Before making a referral, you must have the person’s consent to:
- make the referral to us
- share their details so that we can contact them to discuss the referral
Call us on 020 7974 5801 if you need advice or guidance before making the referral.
- For hospital discharges contact [email protected]
- For prison releases, contact [email protected]
If your organisation makes regular referrals to us, email [email protected] to discuss joint working.
If you’re making a referral due to a hospital discharge, please include the person’s discharge date.
Complete the duty to refer form
What happens next
We will contact the service user to assess if they:
- have recourse to public funds
- are homeless or at risk of being homeless
If you have consent to share information, please email the details to [email protected]. You should include the form reference number that you received.
Relevant information could include:
- details of other professionals or services working with the service user
- any assessments you have recently completed around support or housing needs
- any helpful documents
If we need more information, we will contact you to request this.
A referral made by a partner agency under the duty to refer is not a homeless application. Our statutory duties are only triggered when a service user gives us reason to believe that they may be homeless, or at risk of being homeless.