Industry News
Covid restrictions push more under-25s to sleep rough in capital
The number of young people sleeping rough in London has risen to a record high with further increases forecast as sofa surfing and staying with friends has been outlawed by lockdown restrictions. The Combined Homelessness and
Information Network says the number of 16 to 25-year-olds sleeping rough has risen to 368 in 2020 up from 250 in the same period last year, an increase of 47 per cent. Young people now make up 11 per cent of
the capital’s rough sleepers, a figure described as “an historic high”, well above the normal level of eight per cent. The number of young people contacting Centrepoint’s helpline has risen by more than 50 per cent in 2020 compared with previous years. Paul Brocklehurst, Centrepoint’s helpline
manager, said: “Time is running out to ensure adequate, age-appropriate provision is in place. The mayor needs to refocus his efforts and the resources he has at his disposal to address this rise in young people rough sleeping.” Phil Kerry, the chief executive of
New Horizon who chairs the sub-group on young rough sleepers of the mayor’s Life Off the Streets Taskforce, said: “Young people are being ignored by the Government and in the mayor’s rough sleeping response. “Many more young people who are
sleeping rough are coming through our doors but most of the time we can’t find them a safe space to sleep that night. We end up offering them the choice of a sleeping bag or us paying a stay in a shared room with total strangers at a backpacker’s hostel. There must instead be better and safer options.” However, the latest figures also
contain some good news as the overall number of people recorded as sleeping rough in London between July and September 2020 was 3,444, down by 14 per cent on the same period last year. There were 1,901 people sleeping rough for the first time, an eight per cent drop compared with 2019. Lorrita Johnson, the Salvation Army’s
director of homelessness services, said it was good to see a fall, but that “this short-term gain could still lead to a long-term crisis unless the Government acts now”.
Bill for homeless accommodation soars to £1.2 billion
accommodation for homeless households in 2019/20, with most of the money going to private landlords. According to analysis carried out by the
T
campaigning charity Shelter, this level of spending has increased by nine per cent in the last year and by 55 per cent in the last five years. Of the total spent on temporary accommodation
by councils in England last year, 87 per cent of it went to private landlords, letting agents or companies. The amount of money paid to these private accommodation providers has increased by 66 per cent in the last five years from £621 million in 2014/15 to £1 billion in 2019/20. More than a third (38 per cent, or £393 million)
of the money paid to private accommodation providers was spent on emergency Bed & Breakfast hotels, Meaning that spending on emergency B&Bs
has increased by a staggering 73 per cent in the last five years. This is despite B&Bs are widely considered to be
some of the least suitable places for families with children to live. This is because they involve having to share facilities (bathrooms and kitchens) with other families and often the whole family will have to sleep in one room. There is a six-week legal limit on families being placed in B&Bs but this is
12 | HMM December/January 2021 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
he Government has released figures showing that local councils in England spent £1.2 billion on temporary
frequently exceeded due to a lack of move-on accommodation. At the end of March 2020 there were a total of
93,000 households living in temporary accommodation in England. Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “It is
outrageous that almost £1.2 billion a year is being spent on often shoddy and expensive temporary accommodation because of a lack of social homes. It’s a false economy for taxpayers’ money to be used to pay private landlords for grotty emergency B&Bs, which can be so terrible to live in that families end up deeply traumatised. “The decades of failure to build social homes
means too many people on lower incomes are stuck in unstable private rentals – increasing their chances of becoming homeless. This cycle of destitution persists when those who lose their homes turn to the council for help, because councils have so little social housing left that they can’t alleviate their homelessness for good. All they can do is pay over the odds for insecure temporary accommodation. “If the Government fails to act on this crisis, the
economic chaos of the pandemic is only going to make what is already an awful situation worse, as even more people are forced into homelessness. The Government must commit now to spending ‘smarter’ with a rescue package for social homes. By investing £12 billion over the next two years, we could build an extra 144,000 lower-cost homes, including 50,000 desperately needed social homes.”
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