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Housing options
Medway Council aims to ensure that all residents
have access to affordable housing that enables a good quality of
life.
The Housing Options Service aims to prevent
people from becoming homeless by providing advice and assistance to
people experiencing housing problems.
Kent HomeChoice is
available to people aged 18 years or more who wish to apply for a
council or housing association property in Medway. However, there
is a shortage of these properties in Medway and a huge demand for
accommodation. This means that these properties are not widely
available and usually only go to those who are in the most need, so
you should not rely on this scheme to sort out your housing
problem.
Staying put
Staying where you are
Bearing in mind the shortage of affordable
housing in Medway, it is important to consider whether moving is
actually going to benefit your circumstances. In some cases it is
not possible to stay where you are. You should seek urgent advice
if you do not feel safe in your current home. Please contact one of
our Contact Points if you need
advice.
Adaptations
If you are finding it difficult to move around
your property because of a disability, you may be able to get help
with adaptations from the council.
Disrepair
If you are renting privately and have problems
with any aspect of the safety of your home, you should contact your
landlord or letting agent. If this does not resolve the problem,
you can phone the Private Sector Housing
Team on 01634 333066 for further advice and
assistance. If you own your home but are having difficulty in
keeping up with repairs and you are on a low income, you may be
eligible for assistance through a grant
scheme.
Domestic abuse or harassment
Help and support
Find out what to do if you are experiencing
domestic abuse, hate crime or harassment
and need to leave your home.
Additional security
Some people do not want to move but they feel
that their current property does not have adequate locks, alarms or
other security measures that would make them feel safe. If you are
in immediate danger, then you must contact the police urgently. Do not
wait.
For less urgent or longer term security advice
and assistance, either contact the council, the Crime Reduction
Unit on 01634 792336 or have a look at the
Sanctuary Scheme.
Anti-social behaviour
To report any incident of anti-social behaviour,
contact Customer First at 01634
333333 or use one of the online
forms. These are available for:
- vandalism
- dog fouling
- fly-posting
- litterfly-tipping
- racial incidents
- graffiti
- anti-social behaviour directed at
lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.
You can also call:
- the Kent Racial Incident Reporting Line
on freephone 0800 138 1624;
- the Kent Homophobic Incident Reporting
Line on freephone 0800 328 9162.
Affordability
Renting privately can be expensive in Medway but
you may be entitled to claim housing
benefit if you have a low income. This could cover part or all
of your rent, depending on your circumstances. People who receive
benefits but still cannot afford the
rent may be entitled to further help with a discretionary housing
payment.
For further information about housing and
council tax benefit, please phone the
Housing Benefit Team on 01634 332222. If you own
your home but are having difficulty with the mortgage repayments,
you must seek urgent advice from your lender. There is also a
variety of independent and voluntary agencies able to
help.
Debt
If you are experiencing any debt problems, seek
advice as soon as possible. Early advice could prevent you from
losing your home and will put your mind at rest about how to manage
future repayments. Medway Council works in partnership with the
Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) to provide
a debt advice service. You can phone this service on 0870
1264095. There are many other agencies, such as Shelter,
that can provide independent advice.
Mortgage rescue
Some housing
associations and lenders offer mortgage rescue schemes. These
allow you to continue living in your home, as a tenant or
part-tenant, part-owner, if you are unable to meet the full
payments for your mortgage. Mortgage rescue schemes buy your home
and rent the property back to you. This allows you to stay in your
home while making it more affordable. Think carefully before
signing up to a mortgage rescue scheme. Although some schemes are
effective and could help you to keep your home, others may simply
increase your debts.
Find out more about mortgage rescue schemes from
one of the council's dedicated Mortgage Option Officers or contact
either the CAB or Shelter.
Disagreements with other
people
It can be very difficult to share your home with
family, friends or other tenants if you are not on good terms with
them. Disputes over rent, sharing facilities or issues about
behaviour can easily escalate to the point where you feel you need
to leave. Try to talk calmly about the things that are going wrong
with the other person and see whether you can reach an agreement
about how to solve them.
If you are staying temporarily with friends or
family, make sure you have all the information you need about
renting privately. It is important to
look for alternative accommodation of your own before you have
outstayed your welcome. Young people who are considering leaving
the family home should also think about getting everyone involved
to attend a mediation session if they cannot reach agreement by
themselves. This is because there are very limited housing options
available for young single people and often they are better off
staying at home where possible. Referrals are made through the
Housing Team. You can phone the Medway Mediation service on
01634 832285 or arrange an appointment with our
Mediation Advisor at the Chatham Contact
Point. If this is not an option, visit one of our housing advice surgeries to consider alternative
supported accommodation.
Support in your own home
You may just need a little extra support to help
you live independently in your own home. Medway Council can offer a
range of help through its floating support and outreach support
services such as:
- managing debts, budgeting and applying
for benefits;
- gaining access to other services and
organisations that can provide support and help;
- learning life and social
skills;
- finding out about work or
college;
- keeping an eye on personal
wellbeing;
- alarm systems
to enable people to call for help in an emergency;
- dealing with other professionals, family
and neighbours and advocating on behalf of people.
Floating support is delivered directly to the
service user in their own home for a period of 18 months. Outreach
support is long-term and delivered directly to the service user in
their own home. You can access these support services through the
contact details at the foot of this page.
Renting privately
If you really need to move and there is no
opportunity to stay where you are, then renting privately is the most likely option
available to you. If you are already renting privately, you should
have a returnable deposit on your current home. If you are on a low
income, you may be able to ask family or friends to loan you the
deposit for the new property until the old deposit is returned.
Your existing landlord or agency may have other available
properties, which means they could transfer your current deposit to
another property within their portfolio.
Shared ownership
Low-cost shared ownership helps people who
cannot afford to buy a home outright by allowing them to buy just
part of their home. Having bought a part-share in a home, you then
pay rent to a housing association for
the remainder of the property. If you wish, at a later date, you
may buy more of the property, even buying it outright. This is
entirely a matter of choice. You would be responsible for paying
for a valuation of the property and the legal fees for buying it
and would be totally responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of
the property.
Moat Housing Group operates all local low-cost
ownership schemes as the local provider of the HomeBuy scheme.
Mutual exchange
This is way to move to another council or
housing association property by swapping your home with a tenant
from another council or housing association property. A mutual exchange can be agreed anywhere in the
country. Medway Council keeps lists of people who are interested in
exchanges. To be eligible, tenants must be up-to-date with their
rent and their property must be in a good state of repair. They
should also make sure that the property they are moving to is in
good condition, as they will take on all the responsibilities for
damage or alterations to the property caused by previous
tenants.
Tenants of properties with built-in adaptations
for people with disabilities or tenants of sheltered housing for
older people can only exchange with someone who needs this type of
property. Tenants will need council permission to exchange. To
exchange with the tenant of another landlord, they will need
permission from Medway Council and the other landlord, in writing.
To find out more, phone the Housing Team on 01634
333601.
Home Swapper is a national
service to help tenants move from one area of the country to
another. Details about mutual exchange schemes and Home Swapper are
available from the Home Swapper website (www.homeswapper.co.uk/).
Joining the council’s housing
register
In most cases this is no longer seen as a
realistic housing option, as it takes many years before families
can be rehoused into social housing. Unless you have medical,
social or welfare grounds for additional priority, it is unlikely
that you will be rehoused through this route at all. The exception
to this is for applicants who are more than 50 years old who would
like to live in sheltered accommodation. This is because more
purpose-built elderly and sheltered homes are available in Medway
than those built to meet general housing need. If you are
interested in joining the housing register, contact Kent HomeChoice.
Medway Council operates a number of sheltered schemes for older people, including
two extra care schemes for frail elderly people. Each scheme
consists of a number of studio flats and some one-bedroom flats and
bungalows designed specifically for those at or approaching
retirement age. The extra care schemes are specially adapted to
allow people with more complex health issues to continue to live
independently. The council aims to provide comfortable homes at a
low cost for independent living in a secure environment with
emergency support if it is needed. Residents in its sheltered
accommodation are provided with Medway
Lifeline.
This emergency call service means you can
contact the council's control centre for help in an emergency at
any time. All the council's sheltered homes have door entry systems
with cameras so that staff at the control centre can keep an eye on
who is coming and going. Staff are available to help residents with
problems, including providing advice on local services, working
with other agencies, responding to queries on rents or dealing with
repairs. Each sheltered housing scheme has a comfortable communal
lounge and regular social events and outings. If you are interested
in joining the housing register to apply for sheltered housing,
contact Kent
HomeChoice.
Supporting People programme
The Supporting People
programme offers vulnerable people the opportunity to improve
their quality of life by providing positive services which enable
them to have greater independence and control in making choices in
their lives.
Download the Prevention
Visiting Team referral form (pdf 34KB). To use this document
you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this on your
computer, please use our advice page.
Find out more about preventing homelessness
arising where possible and promoting housing options in the
Visiting Strategy
leaflet.
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