The latest Government figures released show that a record number of households faced homelessness in the first three months of this year.
79,840 households were owed a prevention or relief duty, meaning their Local Authority had a duty to step in to prevent them becoming homeless, or help secure temporary accommodation of some kind.
In total across 2022/23, there was 296,180 households requiring support from their Local Authority when compared to 2021/22, a 6% increase.
Rent Arrears (up 30% on the previous year for social housing and 31% from supported housing), Loss of Private Tenancy (39% increase on previous year), Increase in Rent (130% increase on previous year), and issue of a Section 21 No-Fault Eviction (21% increase on previous year) were listed as the leading causes of making households homeless.
Charities such as Shelter and Crisis spoke out upon the release of these figures, calling for “decisive action, not lip service, before this crisis gets even worse”.
Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis told Inside Housing that “households across the country desperately need more social homes, as well as investment in housing benefit”.
This was echoed by Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of HomelessLink, who described the released figures as “distressing reading” and that they “tell the story of more and more people pushed into homelessness over the past year, hit by the cost of living and let down by a shameful lack of affordable homes”.
For more information on the figures and to read further comments from homelessness charities, read the original article on Inside Housing here.
