Dorset Council is running a campaign to encourage anyone who is worried about losing their home to contact a free helpline called the Housing Advice line, before they get to a crisis situation and risk becoming homeless.
The campaign is aimed at anyone who is responsible for paying the rent or mortgage on a residential property and may be encountering financial difficulty or a relationship breakdown.
This could be someone who:
• lives in social housing
• privately rents
• has a mortgage
• is a landlord
• is a lettings agent
The helpline – which is 01305 221000 – is run by Dorset Council, in collaboration with charities Citizens Advice and Shelter.
When a caller contacts the helpline, it will go through to a triage service, where they will be listened to and directed to the most relevant organisation(s) to progress their query. All advice is free, non-judgemental and confidential.
The Campaign
We ran a soft-touch campaign to promote the service last year, where we saw an increase in the number of calls go up by nearly 20 per cent.
Find out more in the press release here.
Since launching the helpline in 2023, we have prevented 928 households from becoming homeless and have helped thousands of others by phone and email.
We are now in the process of working on Phase 2 of the delivery of the campaign, which includes creating new artwork. This will go live in Winter 2025. We will be in touch closer to the campaign launch for your awareness and to find out if would you like to support us in any way.
We aim to spread the message as far and as wide as possible, so residents know where to turn to in case of unexpected circumstances, such as losing a job, separating from a partner, being served notice by a landlord or a decline in health.
By increasing the opportunities to see our message – we hope people won’t struggle alone and spiral into a crisis situation. We want our residents to feel confident and comfortable to reach out for help, whenever they may need it
Read the full campaign overview here.