Information for homeless people

Homelessness in Greater Manchester

Homelessness in Greater Manchester has quadrupled over the last 10 years. Over the last few years, Manchester has consistently been one of the worst affected cities for homelessness in the UK.

Hundreds of people are sleeping rough, thousands of people are homeless or living in unsafe housing conditions, and hundreds of thousands are on the housing register waiting for an affordable and stable home.

There are lots of fantastic organisations in Greater Manchester working tirelessly to help homeless people, and Greater Manchester Law Centre (GMLC) supports them 100%.

However, we believe that homeless people don’t just deserve charity, they deserve justice. To achieve justice, basic rights – such as the right to shelter, and to be free of discrimination – need to be won and enforced. Lawyers should be ready to step in when those rights are not respected.

As a result of the nationwide housing crisis, cuts to government spending and the savage reduction in Council funding, too often homeless people seeking help are turned away by organisations that have a legal duty to help.

At GMLC, our contribution to ending homelessness in Greater Manchester is to ensure that homeless people and their supporters have the legal tools to know and fight for their rights.

We are also keen to work with frontline organisations and services battling homelessness. If you work or volunteer for an organisation fighting homelessness, please get in touch to see if we could work together.

On this page you find resources we hope will be beneficial for both organisations and individuals.

They are intended to be used and shared freely by both individuals and organisations.

Help from the Council’s Homelessness Department

Below you will find:

1. detailed advice for people making a mainstream homelessness application and as well as for those who don’t qualify for assistance from the housing department but might be entitled to housing assistance from social services, asylum support or other sources.
2. template applications that people or their supporters can fill in and take to the local authority when they ask for help. We hope using these template applications will help people prepare for the questions they are likely to be asked, make sure that full and accurate information is recorded and avoid the risk of the local authority being in any doubt about the assistance that is being requested.
3. attached to the template applications are handheld records for people to take with them to the local authority and other advice agencies to keep a record of the dates and times they have attended and the information and advice that they have been given.

Help from the Council’s Social Services Department

Go to the Support for Migrant Families website.

For information for private renters and social housing tenants, please click on the relevant icon: