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You can request a homeless assessment if you are homeless or threatened with homelessness within the next two months. Assessments are carried out by our housing officers. They will review your circumstances and decide whether you are homeless by legal definition.

There are four elements that we will look into:

1. Are you eligible for homeless assistance?
2. Are you homeless?
3. Have you become homeless intentionally?
4. Do you have a local connection?

If we establish that you meet all four criteria, you are entitled to one reasonable offer of permanent, social housing. To do this we use 

Arrange an assessment

If you have somewhere you can safely stay, you can contact us on

0131 529 7125

HPHOT.HousingAssistants@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Provide us with your 

• full name
• date of birth
• National Insurance number
• contact details
• details of other household members
• details of your current situation.

We are available 

• Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm
• Friday 8.30am to 3.40pm.

We strive to offer you an appointment within 14 days of your first contact. We have unfortunately seen a significant increase in the waiting days for appointments. This is mainly due to the numbers of households presenting as homeless increasing and our resources we have available is not able to meet this demand.

If you are booked in for an appointment you must make sure you are available at the time of the appointment. If not phone to cancel or rearrange the appointment. We may phone you to re-arrange your appointment or offer you an earlier slot.

We can

• try to stop you losing your home
• advise you on housing options
• contact other agencies to help you.

Urgent assistance

If you are roofless, you can drop in during working hours to speak to someone. Our office locations are below.

South East locality office

South West locality office

North West locality office

North East locality office

All our offices are open (excluding public holidays)

• Monday to Thursday from 9am to 4.15pm
• Friday from 9am to 4pm.

If you are homeless and have significant support needs, you can speak to someone at the Access Place.

Out of hours

Our emergency out of hours service can be contacted on

• freephone 0800 032 5968
• local rate 0131 200 2000.

Download the homelessness frequently asked questions