The Private Rented Sector

The private rented sector is now the main move-on option available for hostel and supported housing residents. Private renting can offer people choice and flexibility but some staff and residents may be cautious about accessing this sector. It is important that staff and clients understand the financial implications and availability of support, so that they can make fully informed choices.

These pages contain information and advice on supporting homeless and formally homeless people to access housing in the private rented sector, including an introduction to some of the practical issues that front-line staff may need to consider when supporting their service users, and examples of good practice approaches.

Contents

• Bringing staff and service users on board

This section considers some of the concerns that homelessness sector staff and service users have traditionally held about the private rented sector, and suggests approaches that can support staff and service users to make informed choices about housing options.

• Understanding the financial costs of private renting

This section explains some of the financial considerations for service users and staff supporting them, including Local Housing Allowance, rent deposits and rent in advance.

• Private renting for people who are ready to work

This section outlines some of the issues for service users who want to go back to work, and a model of good practice.

• Rent deposit and rent guarantee schemes

This section gives an overview of how rent deposit and rent guarantee schemes work, and provides some different models of good practice which may be useful both for support staff and for organisations or local authorities looking to start a scheme.

Further reading

These pages signpost to a number of practice resources and tools that may be particularly useful for frontline staff supporting service users to access the private rented sector. Readers looking to cover the issues in more depth, or looking for more strategic analysis and approaches may benefit from the following resources:

• The website privaterentedsector  was created by the London Housing Foundation and is now run by Crisis. It is dedicated to promoting private sector housing as a positive housing solution for single homeless people and includes research and policy perspectives.
• Homeless Link's Move-On Plans Protocol Project (MOPP) is a response to the national problem of move-on and includes a toolkit to address this issue at a local level. Issue 2 of the MOPP project e-brief "MOPP Matters" covers the private rented sector.