Dramatic Rise In Region’s Homeless Children

New figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveal the number of children left without accommodation has dramatically risen more than twofold in four years – rising from 66 across the Liverpool City Region in 2014 to 156 in 2018.

They cover Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, Wirral, St Helens and Halton, and reveal the numbers of children in accommodation arranged by the local authority over the last five years. Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, described the situation as a “national disgrace and personal tragedy for the individuals involved” that there are any homeless children in the UK.

He explained: “That we should see so many living in those circumstances in our city region is a damning indictment of years of austerity and the unpicking of the social safety net that we used to rely on. We know that important factors behind the rise in homelessness include the slashing of public services and the roll out of Universal Credit.”

“Whilst these are national issues, here in the city region we are pioneering a new approach to homelessness through our Housing First initiative and are calling for local control of Job Centre Plus, which would enable us to end the sanctions-based approach.”

A spokeswoman for Whitechapel, the leading homeless and housing charity for the Liverpool region, said homelessness can happen to “anyone at any time”, adding: “There are a range of reasons why families become homeless, including disasters such as fire or flood, people experiencing complex issues such as mental health problems or addiction issues, relationship breakdown and people fleeing violence.”

“One of the most common issues we see is debt. Ideally we would want to move people directly into alternative permanent accommodation but lack of availability of the right type of accommodation means this isn’t always possible and so temporary accommodation is provided.”

A Liverpool City Council spokesman said the authority was committed to helping anyone facing homelessness, and that there had been a 53% decrease in the numbers of rough sleepers. He added: “Our focus is working to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless in the first place.”

“Since the introduction of the Homeless Reduction Act in 2017, the city council has seen an 18% increase in the number of people and families presenting as homeless. Last year the city council’s Housing Options Services were approached by approximately 6,000 households who were at risk of becoming homeless or in housing need. We were able to prevent homelessness in the vast majority of these cases by giving advice, support or help to move to more suitable accommodation in a planned way. But he said due to a range of “complex reasons” like domestic abuse, the council cannot always prevent homelessness, which will “inevitably” involve families in children.

He added: “The majority of this is high quality, purpose built for families with good facilities for children. Homeless families are treated as the highest possible priority by the council and every effort is made to get families permanently re-housed as quickly as possible into affordable, settled accommodation.”