By William Eichler: The shortage of affordable homes is ‘crippling’ councils from being able to end homelessness long-term, charity warns.
A new report from the homelessness charity Crisis has found that nearly half (46%) of people facing homelessness, who approached their local authority for help, have remained trapped in this situation because of a lack of affordable housing.
The charity’s new report, I Hoped There’d be more options, is based on 1,434 surveys and 193 in-depth interviews with people experiencing homelessness and brings together a three-year study to assess the impact of the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA).
The research found that councils are increasingly having to rely on expensive temporary accommodation or the private rented sector because of the affordable homes shortage. The charity warned that the people they spoke to often couldn’t afford the rent or faced discrimination because they were on benefits or had children.
The lack of affordable housing often means that councils have to leave homeless residents sleeping rough, moving from sofa to sofa or in insecure accommodation like nightly paid B&Bs.
Crisis says more needs to be done to ensure the HRA can be at the heart of ending homelessness across England.
The charity is seeking an urgent commitment from the Government to build the 90,000 social homes that are needed each year for the next 15 years to address the escalating housing crisis.
Matt Downie, Crisis chief executive, said: ‘It’s shocking that councils are being forced to leave people living in dingy B&Bs infested with mice, while others live at the mercy of being turfed off the sofa onto the streets at a moment’s notice because they do not have enough affordable housing to go around. The Homelessness Reduction Act has made huge inroads on our mission to tackle homelessness but it’s incredibly disappointing to see it being constrained by a problem that is completely within our control to fix.
‘Governments cannot keep kicking this mounting crisis down the road. To have a fighting chance at ending homelessness for good, the government must get to grips with building the social homes we desperately need and introduce new legal protections so everyone can be helped to find a safe and secure home.’
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) spokesperson said: ‘The number of rough sleepers has fallen in every region of England, taking levels to an eight-year low. But we know we must go further, so we’re investing £2bn over the next three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. This builds on the success of the Homelessness Reduction Act which has secured accommodation for over 475,000 households who were homeless or at risk of homelessness.
‘Our significant £11.5bn investment in affordable housing is also supporting thousands of people into safe and secure homes.’
Contrary to this statement – Crisis, the homeless charity reports that for the period 2013 to 2018, core homelessness had been rising year on year in England, reaching a peak just before the pandemic when the numbers of homeless households jumped from 207,600 in 2018 to over 219,000 at the end of 2019. In addition, the Chartered Institute of Surveyors has also said that the number of people experiencing homelessness in England is predicted to jump by a third by 2024.