On these pages, you will get the addresses of some of the local landlords to whom you can apply for a room, a flat, or a house.

For example, the Housing Associations button on the left will open up 4 other buttons, one each for the section of Bedfordshire you want to live in.

There will be extra buttons on each (yet to be added) that will take you to a page from which you can download the application forms (where they exist), for the type of accommodation you're looking for. These are mainly for housing associations and hostels, as bed and breakfast or private landlords tend to bypass the need for application forms and interview you directly. But their contact details will be here.

If you need a rent deposit (mainly for private accommodation) there is a scheme run by Bedford Council that you can apply for, called the Tenancy (Rent) Deposit Scheme. For more information on a wider range of housing advice subjected, the best place to go is Shelters web site.

In order to get furniture and white goods (i.e. kitchen stuff, such as a cooker, fridge/freezer, washing machine, pots and pans, crockery and utensils, etc.) there are links to organisations such as the Glasspool Trust, Anglian Water Trust Fund (AWTF), British Gas Trust, amongst several dozen others, who will pay for these if you can't afford them yourself and cannot get a Community Care Grant (CCG) from the DHSS on release or afterwards.

For example, if you press the Money button above, it will open up a page with other buttons that lead you to pages where you can get sources of funds for most types of thing. If you press the Funding button on that page, it will open up a list of trust funds who will supply grants for individuals in need (You). Now scroll down until you get to the GLASSPOOL TRUST (it's about the 3rd trust down the table). This trust fund will supply you with a new cooker, fridge/freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer, other kitchen white goods, as well as furniture for the rest of your empty flat.

But they won't give the money directly to you. You need to get a "responsible" other person, such as a probation officer, social worker, or someone from the Citizens Advice Bureau, or a similar body, to verify your application, as you usually need to apply to these trusts for an application form. The Glasspool Trust has a special arrangement with Comet and other stores, so they supply the goods directly to your flat, usually without giving out any hard cash (though they do on occasion gives cheques to responsible 3rd parties to administer). So you need to have a flat or house before you can apply to trusts like these. It usually takes about 1 - 3 weeks for the Glasspool Trust to deliver from the time you make the application.

With the AWTF and others, it can take up to 6 weeks, as they need the app to be made on their own forms and require more (recent) proof of income than the Glasspool Trust, who generally only needs a letter (on their organisations headed notepaper) from your "responsible person" sponsor (giving details and costs of the required items).

To ensure that you have the best chance of getting a grant, there are 2 examples (good and bad) of filled-in Anglian Water Trust Fund application forms on the downloads page, which you can get to by pressing the Downloads button on left hand button panel which will change by first pressing the Money button above

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