A GENERATION of children are having their lives blighted by homelessness, a charity has warned as official figures show huge rises in homeless and rough sleeping.
There were 145,800 children in temporary accommodation as of the end of December last year, up by a fifth from 20 years ago when records for this measure began.
The figure is up 15 per cent from the same period in 2022, data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) shows.
On December 31 last year, there were 112,660 households in temporary accommodation in England, of which 71,280 were households with children.
The number of households in temporary accommodation rose by 12 per cent from the same time in 2022, and those with children increased by 15 per cent.
Last year was also the worst for no-fault evictions as 25,910 people were assessed as needing help for homelessness due to having had a Section 21 notice served on them, making it the highest in six years.
Renters’ Reform Coalition campaign manager Tom Darling said homelessness statistics continue to “see new records shattered every few months,” with more families evicted and growing pressure on council budgets.
“And yet, observing this steadily spiralling crisis, it is maddening to watch the government’s approach to the Renters (Reform) Bill, one of the key levers at its disposal to tackle this crisis.
“Neglected, dropped, picked back up again, delayed, deprioritised, and — finally — gutted of key provisions by a group of pro-landlord MPs.”
He said the Bill in its current form “will fail to touch the sides of this crisis” and argued it “needs major surgery in the Lords” to tackle the problem.
Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said that the abolition of Section 21 has the “potential to make a huge difference to renters’ lives.”
“But the government’s current plans will leave tens of thousands of us exposed to homelessness because of the lack of protection when landlords still have a valid reason to evict us, like selling the property,” he said.
“Renters need more time to move than the two months we currently get, and landlords who are uprooting their tenants’ lives should support us with the costs of moving.
“That will both reduce the stress and hardship of an unwanted move, and reduce the homelessness epidemic that is currently shredding councils' finances.”
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said: “The government cannot stand idly by while a generation of children have their lives blighted by homelessness.”
She said that “decades of failure to build enough genuinely affordable social homes has left families struggling to cobble together extortionate sums every month to keep a roof over their heads.”
Political parties must commit to “ending the housing emergency,” Ms Neate added, urging them all to pledge to build 90,000 social homes a year for 10 years, as well as to overhaul the Bill so that it “delivers genuine safety and security for private renters.”
John Glenton, the chief executive of care and support at housing provider Riverside, warned of a “growing humanitarian crisis unfolding behind closed doors in towns and cities across England.”
“In the 35 years of working in the sector I’ve never known things to be so bad,” he said.
There were 4,118 people seen sleeping rough in London in the first three months of this year, up from 3,107 in the same period in 2023, separate statistics, also published today, showed.
The number of new rough sleepers was 2,038 from January to March, a rise of 37 per cent from the same three months last year, according to the latest Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) statistics.
The Conservatives made a manifesto commitment in 2019 to end rough sleeping by the end of this parliament.
But Homeless Link, which manages the Chain database, said the government’s rough sleeping strategy “has clearly failed” and that the figures resulted from government decisions.
Chief executive Rick Henderson said: “Across the country, a lack of social housing and an insecure private rental system combine together to pressure people into homelessness.”
He expressed disappointment at the “watered-down” Bill “in favour of landlord interests” while doing “very little to address other long-term causes of homelessness.”
Mr Henderson added: “[The government] continues to do very little to address the other long-term causes of homelessness.
“It needs to change its approach, favouring the well-being of those experiencing homelessness, to see any progress on these statistics in the future.”
A DLUHC spokesperson said councils are being supported with £1.2 billion to give help to those who need it and that local housing allowance has been boosted to help towards rental costs.
