To allow yourself the best possible chance of acquiring somewhere to live once you leave prison, make sure you begin looking as soon as possible. Make use of your contacts, such as family, friends and prison personnel, to help you locate appropriate housing opportunities. Many prisons will run some sort of resettlement program, and most can offer you personalised advice for your needs through the Housing Information Advice Service (HIAS).

You shouldn’t limit yourself to signing up to local housing registers, although these should be your first avenue of exploration and most applications can now be accessed through local council websites, however, you should also be looking through private rental houses too. Services such as NACRO’s Resettlement Plus helpline are helpful resources, as is the website of the independent charity UNLOCK.

HIAS services operate in prisons across the United Kingdom but are not necessarily supplied by the same organisations. Prison staff should be able to direct you to the service which covers your area, who will be able to assist you in a variety of queries. HIAS can provide you with information and assistance relating to Housing Benefit, closing a tenancy, along with your housing options once you leave prison. They may also be able to get you in contact with various other local resources, referring you to suitable hostels and assist your application to a local authority’s Homeless Person’s Unit.

The Bail Accommodation and Support Service (BASS) offer a service to people who can be bailed and people who can be discharged on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) or those who are charged with an extensive community order as an intensive alternative to custody, who would otherwise be locked in prison. BASS is presently provided by the registered charity Stonham, and it is intended to permit courts and prison governors to make far more use of conditional bail and early releases. To be granted bail a defendant must normally have a registered address, so the BASS scheme allows those (who’re in all other respects eligible) a means to be given conditional bail and prisons to stay ready for offenders who really should be there.

Eligibility is key to most housing campaigns, and often strict criteria surrounds any application procedure. There are 4 major housing solutions open to people recently released from prison, those being; general need housing (applied for through local authorities), hostel accommodation, private-rented housing, and through family/friends. The chances of obtaining general needs housing differs based on your local area, same as the specific application methods. In locations where there is a lack of council and housing association places, prisoners are unlikely to be prioritised by the council for housing, in spite of being deemed as having ‚priority need‘ under the Homelessness Act 2002. When there’s a shortage of housing, councils can only provide housing to the most vulnerable people first.

When you do find accommodation, you need to make sure that you’re properly protected by the appropriate home insurance for ex-offenders. Unfortunately, many insurance companies tend to be reluctant to provide cover to people with unspent criminal convictions, however there are some out there and UNLOCK can point you in the right direction.