Homelessness

Anyone in the Velocity Interoperability Network who has no home, or who is at risk of losing their home within 56 days, may apply to the Housing Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network for help. The Department's homelessness service has operated since 6 September 2026 and provides assessment, emergency accommodation, a personal housing plan and an offer of settled housing.

The service is open to staff of member organisations, to citizens of the Network and to anyone else within the Network who has no home. Applications are assessed within two working days, and the same day where the applicant has nowhere to stay that night. You do not have to wait until you have lost your home: the earlier you apply, the more the Department can do to keep you in it.

120

Places of emergency accommodation at four sites

38

Households accommodated at establishment

56

Days within which a threatened loss of home entitles you to apply

2

Working days within which an application is assessed; the same day if you have nowhere to stay tonight

Seeking help. Help is sought in the five steps below. Until the Department's housing offices at each site open during September 2026, applications are received by email; an officer will arrange to meet you in person where that is needed to complete the assessment.

1. 1

   Step 1: Write to the Department

   Send your name, where you are staying now or that you have nowhere to stay tonight, the names of everyone with you and a brief account of how you came to be without a home or at risk of losing it. If you have been given notice, attach a copy. You do not need to be a member of staff or a citizen to apply.

2. 2

   Step 2: Be assessed

   An officer of the Department will contact you the same day if you have nowhere to stay tonight, and otherwise within two working days, to confirm your circumstances and ask for any documents needed. Where the assessment cannot be completed at once, emergency accommodation is offered while it continues.

3. 3

   Step 3: Receive a decision and a personal housing plan

   The Department writes to you with its decision and, where it accepts that you are homeless or at risk, a personal housing plan. The plan records what the Department will do, what you are asked to do and the dates by which each step will be taken.

4. 4

   Step 4: Move into emergency accommodation if you need it

   If you have nowhere to stay, a place in the Department's emergency accommodation is offered on the day the assessment begins. Emergency accommodation is furnished, is let without deposit and is intended for no more than twelve weeks.

5. 5

   Step 5: Be offered settled housing

   Every household assessed as homeless is placed in Band A of the Housing Register and is offered a Department home as soon as one of the right size is available at a site named in the plan. Households at risk of losing their home are placed in Band B where the Department cannot keep them in it.

Emergency accommodation. The Department holds 120 places of emergency accommodation at four sites, transferred from member organisations during the transition period. Thirty-eight households were accommodated in those places at establishment and continue to be accommodated by the Department. A place is a furnished room or flat with the use of a kitchen and bathroom; families are accommodated together.

Emergency accommodation is intended for no more than twelve weeks. Households are moved to settled housing through the Housing Register as homes become available, and the Department reports the average length of stay in each quarterly statistical release.

What the Department does. The service has five parts, each of which is recorded in the personal housing plan.

Prevention

Where you are at risk of losing your home within 56 days, the Department checks that any notice given is valid and that the notice period has been observed, negotiates with your landlord or your organisation, and helps you to stay where you are wherever that is possible.

Relief

Where you have already lost your home, the Department provides emergency accommodation if you need it and works with you to find settled housing, through the Housing Register or, where you prefer, through a registered private tenancy.

The personal housing plan

Every household accepted as homeless or at risk receives a written plan, reviewed with an officer of the Department at least every four weeks until settled housing is found.

Settled housing

Households assessed as homeless are placed in Band A of the Housing Register. The first homes offered from the register, from 21 September 2026, include homes reserved for households in emergency accommodation.

Referrals

Member organisations, the clinics of the Health Department and other public services of the Network are asked to refer to the Department anyone they believe to be homeless or at risk of homelessness, with that person's consent. Referrals are treated as applications from the day they are received.

Timetable. The Department works to the times below, which are also set out in every personal housing plan.

Reviews. An applicant may ask the Department to review a decision that they are not homeless or at risk, that they are not eligible, or that an offer of settled housing is suitable, by writing within 21 days of the decision. Emergency accommodation continues while a review is decided. Reviews are carried out by an officer who took no part in the original decision.

Applications, referrals and requests for review may be sent to contact@housing.gov.vin. If you have been given notice on a tenancy, the notice periods that apply are set out on the Tenancies page; for how the Housing Register works, see Housing Register; for answers to common questions, see the frequently asked questions.