Go to navigation
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
- litter
- fly-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 Riverside One. 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 their website.
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.
Add this page to my Quick Links:
Add page
Send this page to a friend:
Send