No, this is not the case. A person under the age of 18 cannot hold a tenancy in their own right by law. They can access supported accommodation provided they are aged 16yrs and over however, supported accommodation is only for young people who are homeless, have nowhere else to go and cannot manage to live alone without support.
Homelessness and Housing
Are you having constant fallouts with your 16 or 17-year-old? Do you think you would benefit from some help or support to make things easier at home? Would you like more information on what their options are to move out?
Young People aged 16 and 17 years
Parents or carers of 16 and 17-year-olds are responsible for their children's welfare; young people are not classed as adults until they turn 18 years old.
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We want to keep families together in their homes wherever possible and where it is safe to do so. For most young people, staying in their family home (with support) is usually the best outcome for them.
We will always expect to speak to the young person as well as their parent(s) or carer(s) to find out more about why they cannot go home and talk about whether we could offer any help (not financial) to keep the young person at home.
Any 16 or 17-year-old young person who is homeless or threatened with homelessness will be referred to the Children’s Services Safeguarding Hub for a Child & Family Assessment by a Social Worker.
If at any point there are concerns for the young person's safety, possible child exploitation or there are safeguarding concerns then a referral to the Safeguarding Hub will be made.
Young People aged 18 years and over
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Get help in your area
If your young person is aged 18 years or older, with nowhere to stay and in need of some help to look at their housing options, they can contact your local housing team.
Youth Homeless and Housing Officers for Cumberland are:
- Helen Walker (Allerdale and Copeland locality) call 07825 340628 or email helen.walker@cumberland.gov.uk
- Lisa Williams (Carlisle locality) call 07825 097991 or email lisa.williams@cumberland.gov.uk
Cumberland Housing teams can be contacted at:
- Allerdale team call 01900 702660 or email Homelessness1@cumberland.gov.uk
- Carlisle team call 01228 817428
- Copeland team call 01946 598300 (available for emergencies 24 hours a day) or email housing.options@copeland.gov.uk
Accommodation Mythbuster
A young person can leave home at 16 and get a council flat
Getting pregnant guarantees you a house
Being provided with accommodation is connected to having nowhere else to go. Being homeless and genuinely having nowhere else to go would mean you would have a priority need to be housed. However, the law would still apply that a person under the age of 18 cannot hold a tenancy in their own right. This would be the case if you were pregnant or not. Pregnancy does not guarantee a house of your own.
It's easy to get a social housing "council" house…
All social housing in Cumbria is let through a scheme called Cumbria Choice-Based Lettings and you need to apply to register with this before you can start to look at what properties may be available. Anyone aged 16 years or over may apply to join the Housing Register but conditions will apply (even if a young person aged 16 years registers, they cannot bid on properties until they turn 18). All applications are assessed according to the level of housing need and placed in one of 3 Bands, A to C. They will also take into account whether applicants have a local connection with Cumbria, the extent of this and whether applicants can afford to resolve their own housing problems. Within each Band, applications are placed in date order.
There are no guarantees about how quickly or even whether young people will be offered a property. There are lots of applications for each property that is advertised. If your young people are aged 18 – 24 years and are homeless, they may be able to be considered for supported accommodation; this is shared accommodation and they would be expected to follow the rules of the tenancy or house rules and contribute to the costs (exactly how much they would need to pay, is linked to how much money they have). Young people aged 18 years and over can approach the local housing team as well as the contacts above and they may be able to support them to look at other options such as private landlords.
Useful Links
There are useful guides to moving out of home by Cumbria County Council the NSPCC and Childline.
If you find yourself homeless you can get support locally through the local authority.
"The best bit about supported accommodation is it’s helping me get more comfortable about opening up and also about being myself thanks to
all the support I have received."
"Being able to trust my support worker. Being able to have support whenever I need it and not just at appointments."