The quantity of homeless children residing in temporary housing in England has surged to its highest point in the past twenty years. Official data revealed that by the end of June, 172,420 children were living in families compelled to stay in temporary accommodations, such as B&Bs and hostels, marking an increase of 13,110 from the previous year’s data. This is the first instance where the number has surpassed 170,000 since records began in 2004, prompting campaigners to denounce it as a “national disgrace.”
Recent statistics from the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government also disclosed that a total of 132,410 families are currently residing in temporary housing. Among these, 3,340 households with children are in B&Bs, 3,590 in hostels, and an additional 33,530 families with kids are in nightly paid and privately managed accommodations.
Shelter, a housing charity, attributes these alarming figures to a severe deficiency in social rental housing and insufficient benefit levels that are trapping families in homelessness. The charity is urging the government to lift the freeze on local housing allowance in the upcoming Autumn Budget and set an ambitious national target for the delivery of social rental homes. They propose an annual target of 90,000 homes for the next decade to effectively eradicate homelessness.
Mairi MacRae, Director of Campaigns and Policy at Shelter, expressed deep concern over the situation, emphasizing the dire conditions faced by families stuck in temporary accommodations. She criticized successive governments for neglecting the housing emergency, leaving families in appalling conditions and uprooted from their communities.
Jess McQuail, Director of the Just Fair campaign group, and John Glenton, Chief Care and Support Officer at Riverside, echoed these sentiments, highlighting the urgent need for political action to address the humanitarian crisis of homeless children in temporary accommodation across England.
