The borough's homeless are being offered financial support as part of an emergency initiative to get thousands into their own homes and out of B&Bs.
Under the initiative, called the Sponsored Tenancy Scheme, Croydon Council has said it will pay deposits on privately rented accommodation.
While tenants will still be considered for vacant council housing, they will also be free to look independently for affordable homes in the private sector, inside or outside Croydon.
The council will pay the deposit on any suitable property, with housing staff on hand to provide advice and assistance.
A spokesman said those on the verge of becoming homeless may also qualify.
Croydon's cabinet member for housing, Councillor Tony Newman, said sales and rental prices remain high, increasing pressure on the affordable housing and social housing sectors and forcing many households into long-term bed and breakfast accommodation.
Other local schemes are the Empty Property Strategy, which brings empty private homes back onto the rental market, and Fresh Start, which supports residents if they decide to leave the borough.
He added: "London councils together are having to accommodate over 50,000 households in temporary accommodation at the moment, which is the highest figure ever recorded in the capital."
Anyone interested in signing up should contact Yvonne Murray in the housing advice section on 020 8760 5768, ext.4022.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article