Wiltshire

Young people applying for housing

Leaving Home is one of the most important decisions that you will ever make.

The best time to leave home is when you:

• Feel ready
• Have support to move out
• Have made a plan

It's not a good idea to rush into leaving home. Ideally you should stay with your family until you can move out in a planned way.

Anyone aged 18 or over may apply to join the Housing Register. Young people aged 16 and 17 may apply if an adult will act as a trustee and guarantor for the tenancy. We will need a letter from an adult confirming that s/he is willing to act in the capacity of a trustee or guarantor.

If young people wish to apply with a friend, as joint applicants, the council welcomes this. Two friends would be entitled to bid for two bedroom flats. It is important, before you make your housing application as friends, that you are confident that you would want to share for some time. Living with friends can make accommodation more affordable for young people on low earnings.  Many homes advertised on Homes4Wiltshire these days are “affordable rents” which are roughly 80% market rents but can include a service charge on top of the rent.  Please note that not all the landlords advertising on Homes4Wiltshire will consider friends as tenants unless they have lived together for 12 months.

If you not earning very much, or unemployed, it can be worth using a benefits calculator to find out what benefits you can get and how to claim.  The main online benefits calculators are entitledto and Turn2us.

A new benefit Universal Credit, which includes housing element to help people on low incomes with their rent, and administered by Jobcentre Plus is replacing Housing Benefit administered by Wiltshire Council for most working age people.

If you are a young person, and you have nowhere to stay, please contact the council's Housing Options team on 0300 456 0106 or at homeless@wiltshire.gov.uk.  Please note that if you do not have a serious housing problem, Housing Options cannot help with routine Homes4Wiltshire matters.  All enquiries about the Housing Register ought to be addressed by email to homes4wiltshire@wiltshire.gov.uk or by telephone to the Customer Services team on 0300 456 0104.