Another rise in homelessness under the Tories

13,850 households were accepted as homeless between April and June of this year

 

There was a 5 per cent rise in the number of homeless households between April and June of this year, according to new government figures.

Statistics released today show that 13,850 households were accepted as homeless between April and June of this year – a rise of 5 per cent across England and 10 per cent in London compared to the same time last year.

In total this adds up to a rise of 36 per cent since 2009/10.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) reports that over 3,500 people have become homeless and slept rough in the last five years under the Conservatives. Shelter reports that at least 93,000 children will see the New Year in with no home in 2016.

It has also been reported that women make up 14 per cent of London’s rough sleepers with 3 per cent being transgender. 26 per cent of homeless charity service users are women.

Meanwhile the government’s housing data for June showed an annual price increase of 5.4 per cent, taking the average property value in England and Wales to £181,619 – higher than during the pre-crash property boom.

Commenting on today’s figures, chief executive of Crisis Jon Sparkes said:

“Homelessness rose by 5 per cent between April and June compared to the same time last year. Nearly a third of these people became homeless following the ending of a private tenancy. This is totally unacceptable and reflects the desperate state of our private rented sector.

“Homelessness has risen by 36 per cent in the last five years. We cannot ignore the reality behind these numbers. Thousands of people across the country are struggling to keep a roof over their heads in a housing market that is no longer fit for purpose, while cuts to housing benefit and homelessness services have left the safety net in tatters.

“Our politicians can and must do something about this. We need housing benefit that actually covers the cost of renting, a much stronger focus on preventing homelessness, and a change in the law so that no one is forced to sleep rough. At the same time, we need decisive action to make the private rented sector more accessible and affordable, along with radical solutions to tackle the severe shortage of affordable homes.”

21 Responses to “Another rise in homelessness under the Tories”

  1. RoughSleeper

    Yes, but this, ‘Homeless’, is not the same as ‘RoughSleeping’.

    ‘Homeless’ is a ‘catch all’ expression, used as a statistic bulking word, to get more salary money, from government & people that think that they are giving for help to ‘RoughSleepers’.

    ‘Homeless’ includes anyone that has not got their name on the rentbook, and would have no legal right to continue the tenancy, if the named tenant was to leave, or die.

    This is a massive ‘catch all’, and includes students that have gone back to their parents from Uni, and the recent ‘sanctions’ have encouraged all clever people to take their name off the rentbook, and live at the same address as ‘homeless’, with their partner, parent, accomplice, to avoid workfare availability, council tax, rent, sanctions, work experience, job search, etc.

    The charities that use this expression to get more salary money, are just as guilty of the fraud. They would prefer to deal with ‘Homeless’, because, unlike the ‘RoughSleepers’, there is no call on their time to provide for them.

    Smudging the words ‘RoughSleeping’, & the much bigger number of ‘Homeless’, diminishes the real hardship of the former.

    Lets get rid of the fraud on both sides of the fence.

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    (8.8824 x 10K hours expertise, Boots on the ground, 3701 Days, @ 1.5185 pence/day)

  2. JoeDM

    Those in the study are in temporary accomodation, they are not totally homeless.

  3. jj

    Homelessness is a very very vague and broad term. Please LFF, give the official definition of homelessness.

  4. steroflex

    Rough sleeper has nailed it.
    I have been homeless and, do you know what? I made sure that I got a job and then rented somewhere. In the meantime we just shacked up anywhere we could find. We had a couple of children living at home at the time too. My (excellent) wife deserves a medal for putting up with it all.
    Eventually we got back to living in (rented) accommodation. 12 moves in 13 years…
    Looking at the beggars on the street in Peterborough and the drunk Russians in Wisbech in the churchyard and local parks, I think for a lot of people “sleeping city” is a lifestyle choice.

  5. Selohesra

    One also needs to be very careful with definitions of poverty – if relying on relative income as a definition there will always be some worse off than others but that is very far from poverty in the third world sense that the average man in the street understands by the term.

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