Shelter launches new appeal as housing crisis grows
A new family becomes homeless every ten minutes, according to new research from Shelter, meaning that 120,000 children will wake up homeless or in temporary accommodation this Christmas.
The new analysis of government figures shows the highest level of child homelessness recorded since 2007, and indicates that the number of families living in emergency B&B and hostel rooms has risen by 18 per cent in just a year.
Shelter suggests that the crisis is escalating because local councils are battling to find stable or affordable accommodation for homeless families, and must send them to B&Bs instead.
John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, pointed the finger of blame directly at the Tories, commenting:
“Tory Ministers should hang their heads in shame over these shocking figures showing over 120,000 children are facing homelessness this Christmas. These are the children that can’t go home and after six years Conservative Ministers can’t dodge their responsibility for this scandal.
Six years of failure on housing has led directly to today’s rapidly rising homelessness. Since 2010, Ministers have ended funding for genuinely affordable social rented housing, cut housing benefit for families on low incomes, done nothing about rising costs and insecurity for private renters, and slashed funding for homelessness services by almost a half.”
See also: Theresa May’s glib ideology won’t feed those relying on food banks
5 Responses to “Over 120,000 children in the UK will be homeless this Christmas”
Imran Khan
I stopped giving to Shelter when it became a business with salaried executives. Nothing more than a money making racket.
patrick newman
Terrible but you aint seen nothing yet. The cut to the benefits cap (down to £20,000 outside London, £23,000 in the capital) comes in to effect next Monday (7th). This will certainly lead to many thousands of evictions and families breaking up. Cruelty like this and the benefit sanctions we never saw under Thatcher!
Mick
The highest child homelessness SINCE the year 2007? I’m not making light of kids but come on, Labour! In that light, Jon Healey should be proud that the Tories seem to be emulating his own party! (God, stealing policies again!!)
Labour has no room in this debate. Labour should have told its councils long ago to stop wasting money and spend on the needy. When, instead, for example, Reading council has a shiny new £5,000,000 civic centre to play in – its third posh place in forty years now and after much left wing whining about Tory cuts. Also, Hull Labour will spend millions on their recycling gulag, where hapless citizens will be sent for re-education if they wash their bottles well enough. Hull lefties, too, bitched about ‘savage Tory cuts’.
Mick
Hmm, edit needed: ‘where hapless citizens will be sent for re-education if they wash their bottles well enough. ‘
That should be if they DON’T. Even Labour isn’t THAT wasteful… as I recall.
New homelessness legislation is welcome – but we need social housing to make it work | Left Foot Forward
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