Young person on a mobile phone

Centrepoint Helpline

If you’re in England and aged 16 to 25, talk to the Helpline at Centrepoint to get advice on your housing situation and rights.

Are you feeling overwhelmed about where to start with finding safe housing? 

If you’re in England and aged 16 to 25, ​call, message​ or ​​chat live ​with our non-judgemental and experienced ​​​Helpline ​advisors to get advice on your housing situation and rights. They will listen, give you guidance and connect you to the right services to help you find a place to stay where you can close the door and feel safe.  

Our friendly​ advisors can also support you if ​​you’re worried about a young person who is homeless or facing homelessness.

 

Call the Centrepoint Helpline

Call free on ​0808 800 0661, Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm. 

​​If you’d prefer to speak in a language other than English, let us know and we can get in touch with a translator for you within a few minutes of your call.​​​ 

​​If you need help ​​​​outside these hours, ​​​​send us a message and one of our advisors will call you back within two days.​ 

Talk to us

Chat online with a Helpline advisor

Start talking with one of our advisors straight away, between 9am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. First, we'll ask you a few simple questions about your situation. 

You can open Live chat with the purple button on the right of the screen.

​​If our Live ​chat​ is closed, please ​send us ​a message and we’ll get back to you ​with​in two working days.​     ​

Send a message to a Helpline advisor

Send us a message and one of our Helpline advisors will phone or email you back within two working days. We’ll ask you to let us know a bit about what you want to discuss.

​​​Send us a message

How will Centrepoint help me?

Whether you’re ​​facing eviction, sleeping rough or sofa surfing, we will listen and do everything we can to help. We’ll take the time to make sure we understand your situation before we offer you advice. 

It’s scary when you don’t know where to turn. Our advisors will help you navigate the complex housing system so that ​​you can find somewhere safe to live.  

You’ll receive tailored guidance to make sure you understand your options.

Last year, nearly 7,000 people contacted the Centrepoint Helpline to get the advice they needed to find safe accommodation.

Young person stood against wooden fence
When my mum and stepdad kicked me out, I didn't know what to do. I called the Centrepoint Helpline and they connected me with a local support worker, called Sharon, who helped me find safe accommodation.
Emily

Questions you may have

You can call if you need help supporting someone who is under 25. If you are over 25 and need help with homelessness or housing, it’s best to contact Shelter

If ​you are homeless or ​at risk of homelessness within the next 56 days, the first people to get in touch with are ​​the homeless team at your local council. 

Enter your postcode here to find out your local council, and check what counts as a local connection to a council here

Can’t find the contact details for your council’s homeless team? Or do you want some advice on what the process of making a homeless application involves? Then call ​​the Centrepoint Helpline on 0800 0661 (Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm).  

We need a referral from your local council. You need to first ​register as homeless or at risk of homelessness with your local council. Then, if you’re accepted, the council will assess you and, if they refer you to Centrepoint, we can place you in the best accommodation for you. We have housing in London, Sunderland, Manchester, Bradford and Barnsley. 

About The Centrepoint Helpline

What we do

The Centrepoint Helpline provides housing advice in England to young people aged 16-25 or their family and friends over email, webchat and phone. We listen to young people and provide them with advice and details of services they can access.

The Centrepoint Helpline is currently open Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. We're committed to reviewing these opening hours and improving access to translation services.

Your privacy and data

Will ​​my conversation with you be kept confidential?

We won’t share any information with people outside of Centrepoint unless we think you or someone else might be at risk. For example, if we need to contact emergency services to keep you safe. 

Calls to the Centrepoint Helpline may be recorded ​so that we can monitor the quality ​of the support we provide and ​continue ​to make things better for homeless young people​​​. 

We always follow best practice to keep you safe and our Helpline is accredited by the Helplines Partnership

How long will you keep data about me? 

We'll hold your data securely for three years and then delete it. 

Service standards

  • We will take time to listen to your situation and make sure we understand it before we provide you with advice.
  • We will focus on your situation and always be honest. 
  • We will use all the resources we have to give you advice that's tailored to you and your situation – even if it means we need to do some research and get back to you.
  • We will explain your options to you and provide you with a copy of our advice.
  • We will provide ways for you to contact us on your preferred channels. 
  • We will review our opening hours to ensure the service is open when it's needed.
  • We will aim to reply to messages outside of opening hours within two working days.