Bootle Families ‘Effectively Made Homeless’ By Floods

/in /by

One year on from the floods that forced Bootle residents out of their homes, the Liverpool ECHO visited the street to speak to the people affected and examine the impact on the community.

“It was like living in Beirut!” says Linda Crilly, 70, as she tries to describe the aftermath of the Bulwer Street flood last year. Like so many other residents, Linda’s home was flooded with dirty water after a prolonged period of heavy rain and a ‘software fault’ in a United Utilities sewer system. Emergency services were called to Bulwer Street in Bootle on September 30 last year after water started gushing into people’s homes, with many requiring rescue boats to get out safely. It was the second major flooding incident reported on this road in the last 14 years and left dozens of residents effectively homeless.  Their living spaces became submerged in dirty water, ruining household items such as TVs and sofas as well as personal mementos and family heirlooms.

Linda was at a celebration in Southport when she got a phone call off her husband to say water was coming in through the back of the house again. Linda said ‘again’ because she and her husband were also residents of Bulwer Street when it was flooded back in 2013. Because of that experience, Linda decided they were going to stay in the house during the clean-up process, having moved out into temporary accommodation the last time. But when she considers everything they went through, she is still conflicted about whether it was the right thing to do.

Linda describes the immediate aftermath of last year’s flood: “It was like living in Beirut! That was the way I described it at the time. It looked like it was. My husband and myself had already made the decision that we weren’t going to leave the house, because when I think, when you’re not there, you can get forgotten about. They had to dig up the living room floor so we had to go missing for a full day while they dug this up, and then they laid a new floor, but they used tarmac. The whole house smelled like a road! I still say United Utilities have not given us enough information. They just keep saying that it won’t happen again. They’re hoping it won’t happen again, but they’re not giving us any concrete evidence that they’ve done anything at all.”

Like many other residents, Linda hates it when it rains because of the potential for flooding, she said: “I personally don’t look out the window anymore, but my husband does, and he’s like ‘the street is starting to flood again’. I’ve got to the stage now where I think, I’m not King Canute, I can’t hold it back. If the rain is going to come in, it’s going to come in.”

Flood events in Sefton rose by more than 70% during the year before the Bulwer Street flood, while average rainfall in September 2024 increased by 150-200%, according to a report published by Sefton Council. In terms of the cause of the flooding on Bulwers Street, Sefton Council’s official report stated: “Whilst the area is known to have significant risk of flooding from surface water, the main cause of the flooding during this event was due to a failure of the automated control system in the combined sewer, operated by United Utilities.”

Joan Porter, 64, said she is a ‘three time veteran’ of the Bulwer Street floods. Joan remembers with dread the events of September 30 2024 and the subsequent seven months trying to restore her home. When the rains started, Joan said she was on her way back from the Asda and got a call from her husband who said the entire street was flooded, “I pulled up to the street and all the shopping just got lashed because we went into survival mode.” That night, Joan said the seriousness of their situation ‘hit them like a hammer’ and they had to go and stay with their daughter. They had spoken to other residents who were experiencing flooding for the first time, many of whom optimistically assumed the clean-up would take a few days, but Joan knew differently.

She said: “People were put up in apartments for months on end, and in areas they had no connection to and didn’t want to be in. We went to our daughters and we were there for six months.” Joan showed us around her home which is fully refurbished and she has spent a lot of time and money trying to make it into a home again. However, it’s still difficult for her to relax, knowing it could be taken away again, she said: “When it’s heavy rain, you’re just constantly looking out the window, watching that grid, making sure it goes down. You’re just you’re living on your nerves and we’re all living in fear.” Joan said she is not reassured by United Utilities explanations for the flooding: “Whatever they say, it’s not ‘if’ it happens again, it’s ‘when’ it happens again. They forget that I’ve heard them say ‘it wouldn’t happen again’ last time, and look what happened.”

United Utilities conducted its own investigation and said a ‘software issue’ prevented the system from operating as expected. Its current position is that the issue has been resolved and confirmed it has implemented additional measures to ensure the ‘long-term resilience of our system and minimise the risk of flooding’. A United Utilities spokesperson said: “We understand that flooding is a huge concern for residents in the area and remain committed to doing everything we can to ensure the long-term resilience of the sewer network. Since last year’s flooding, we have implemented several measures, including installing more sensors in our network, manually monitoring our system during periods of heavy rain, and investing £11m to enhance the local sewer network to minimise the risk of flooding. We will continue to play our part in rebuilding the local community and providing support where needed.”

My Teachers Had No Idea I Was Homeless. People Like Me Hide In Plain Sight In The UK

/in /by

The housing crisis has reached catastrophic new levels, and Labour is planning to slash affordable housing even further. It doesn’t have to be this way, reports Isra Sulevani for the Guardian.

Something that often takes me by surprise is how people react to finding out I was homeless growing up. They have a picture of what homelessness should look like, and my family and I don’t fit into it – I’m at university studying medicine now. But people like me hide in plain sight. They’re your neighbours until suddenly they’re not. They’re everywhere and nowhere, all at the same time. My family came to the UK after becoming refugees during the Iraq war, and were homeless, repeatedly, for years – moving from friends’ house to friends’ house, or B&B to B&B. Each new place meant a new school, a new set of friends and a new set of rules I had to get used to. Over time, I think my siblings and I became pretty immune to the anxiety you feel when starting again.

I don’t remember all the places we stayed, though most of them were cold. In one, we lived above a party animal, blaring music so loud it would make my head thump as we tried to go to sleep. Others had rats – once my sister burst out of the bathroom screaming, in the middle of the night, because one had emerged when she lifted the toilet seat. In another place there were four of us in one room with all our belongings, while my siblings and I played human Tetris in bunk-beds. I remember reading to my younger brother there, doing my best to give him that normal family experience despite the chaos.

Government figures show that there are now more than 132,000 households living in all forms of temporary accommodation in England, including more than 172,000 dependent children. It’s a record high – up 8.2% on 2024 – surpassing the last record set earlier this year. The conditions in temporary accommodation are often well below the standard anyone should be expected to accept – it can be cramped, or cold or dangerous. Official data recently found that temporary accommodation in England may have contributed to the deaths of 74 children in just five years.

It wasn’t until I was much older, during the Covid pandemic – my GCSE year – that I realised what I’d experienced as a child hadn’t been normal. Usually when we moved schools, we just left, without telling them. But the pandemic meant my mum and dad lost their income from their jobs and things started to get even harder, so I’d had to apply for a bursary. That meant telling my school I was homeless. When I showed a teacher proof of our household income, her face just dropped. She couldn’t believe the number on the paper. She had to ask me again if I was sure of the amount, because she was struggling to believe that that figure had sustained my whole family. When I saw the look on her face, I realised this was not a normal way to live.

Leaving all your friends behind and starting afresh year after year just wasn’t normal. No one spoke about it growing up, and I didn’t even understand what was going on. When we were put in a B&B, I had thought we were on holiday. Looking back, I realised it wasn’t a holiday, and it wasn’t through choice, but my parents were pretty good at acting as if it was. My family are now stably housed – we’re safe and happy. After my teacher found out about our situation, she put us on free school meals, which helped massively. I could actually think straight in lessons, I could stay after school for longer because I wasn’t hungry, and teachers stopped pestering me for not having textbooks. Now I’m studying medicine.

But today’s figures are a reminder that I’m one of the lucky ones. Thousands are trapped in the same situation I experienced. The instability, the risk, the rats – and the cold. The worst thing is that we could stop this if we wanted to. We know what causes homelessness, which means we know how to end it. That means building more social homes, and it means creating a welfare system that allows people to live in dignity. That would have made all the difference for us – having an affordable, social home would have meant we could have stayed in one place, and had some stability. There are now more than 1.3 million households in England alone on waiting lists for a social home, and meanwhile the Guardian has just revealed that Labour plans to slash already-low affordable housing targets for developers. When the Labour government came to power, it promised a strategy to end homelessness. Fifteen months later, we are yet to see it. The same goes for the child poverty strategy.

While we wait, more people are going through what my siblings and I did. I’m working with Crisis, the homelessness charity, to call on ministers to urgently deliver a strategy to end homelessness for everyone. Any meaningful plan for change must surely lead to the creation of a society where we can all thrive, because we all have access to a decent, affordable home. We moved from place to place, but none of them were home, because we didn’t feel comfortable living there.

I hadn’t realised at the time, but you miss out on a lot, growing up in those circumstances. The milestones I imagine people my age would have cherished didn’t really exist. Looking back, it kind of felt as if everyone else was making small leaps on little stones to cross a river, while my family and I had to wade through, our shoes drenched. It wasn’t normal to grow up like that, and no one else should have to.

  • Isra Sulevani is a fourth-year medical student and lived experience homelessness campaigner for Crisis.

The Challenge Of Counting Hidden Homelessness In Britain

/in /by

Hidden homelessness is unseen, hard to define and even more difficult to measure, reports the Big Issue.

While homelessness might conjure up the image of someone bedding down in a shop doorway, the reality is that they are the minority. Thousands of people live in temporary accommodation supplied by local authorities. Others have called on the council for help to avoid becoming homeless. But those are just the cases we know about. There’s also another group of people experiencing homelessness who have fallen through the cracks. Out of sight, out of mind. They may be bunking with friends, sleeping on families’ sofas, sleeping in cars parked out of sight. People who find themselves in this position may not even consider themselves homeless. It’s a situation that young people are particularly vulnerable to and minority groups, such as people in the LGBTQ+ community, are also more likely to be affected.

Ben Keegan, chief executive of Sheffield youth homelessness charity Roundabout, told Big Issue: “The first thing that springs to mind when you think of hidden homelessness among people we see is people sleeping on a settee at a friend’s or an auntie’s. If you’ve lost your home, the first thing you do is go to friends and family and say: ‘Can I stay at your house?’ It’s what people do before they approach a service like ours.”

By its very nature, hidden homelessness is unseen and there is no UK-wide definition of it, which makes it hard to measure. It often ends when someone decides to make themselves known to services that can help. That can come from reaching out to support themselves or when the person they are staying with finally calls time on the living arrangement. Our focus comes at a time when governments across Britain are laying out their vision to tackle homelessness and the housing crisis. Both Scottish and Welsh governments are rolling out new legislation looking to prevent homelessness while the Westminster government is due to publish a cross-government strategy on the issue.

They must not lose sight of those who are falling through the cracks if they are to prevent a new generation seeing the realities of homelessness first-hand.

Nicholas Connolly, CEO of EveryYouth – a network of charities including Roundabout, said reaching young people will be key to that. That includes measures like Upstream, which uses surveys to identify kids at risk of homelessness in school in England and Wales before stepping in to prevent it.

“If this [Westminster] government is going to reduce youth homelessness it must address its root causes. Raising children is hard and the support available is limited,” said Connolly. “Only by scaling programmes like Upstream – pioneered by EveryYouth charities – which proactively identifies children and families that need help, can we reduce hidden homelessness substantially.”

Homelessness is notoriously difficult to count – but for people not in view on the street or approaching services, they might as well be invisible. How many people are in that position? It’s tough to know. Back in 2023, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) attempted to research how many people in the UK may be experiencing hidden homelessness. The statistics body concluded that “it is not currently possible to estimate the true scale of hidden homelessness across the UK because of known complexities in reaching this population group”.

Over the years, plenty of people have tried to quantify how many people might be homeless but out of sight. Homelessness charity Crisis said in 2011 that an estimated 62% of the people they surveyed in England were experiencing hidden homelessness at the time of the poll while 92% had been in that position in the past. The London Assembly’s Housing Committee estimated that 13 times more people were experiencing hidden homelessness than visibly sleeping rough back in 2017.

The English Housing Survey keeps track of ‘concealed households’, meaning people who can’t afford to buy or rent elsewhere. Approximately 1.5 million households in England contained additional concealed households, representing 6% of the country’s total. These concealed households tended to be younger, male and living with their parents with just over half (54%) aged 16 to 24. While not traditionally thought of as homeless, rising numbers of young people are living with parents for longer. Scotland’s homelessness statistics keep track of the accommodation where people were last staying before they made a homelessness application to a local authority. While not a cast-iron measure of hidden homelessness, the family home (26% of cases) and a friend’s places (20%) were the most common answers in 2023-24.

The ONS noted that evidence suggested women, young people and ethnic minorities are more likely to experience hidden homelessness. Overcrowding can also be considered a form of homelessness and ethnic minorities are more likely to experience it. The 2021 Census in England and Wales showed households where all members were Muslim were five times more likely to experience overcrowding in England and six times more likely in Wales. Households where all members identified as black, black British, black Welsh, Caribbean or African had the highest level of overcrowding – 16.1% in England and 11.9% in Wales – compared with all households.

The hidden nature of homelessness for women even inspired Single Homeless Project and Solace Women’s Aid to set up the women’s rough sleeping census to keep track. The groups argue that the dangers on the street mean women are more likely to hide away than bed down on the street. Their census takes in night buses, 24-hour fast food restaurants and other places where women might seek shelter instead. They have found 10 times as many women could be sleeping rough in some form than is counted in England’s official rough sleeping snapshot.

Homeless People ‘Deeply Failed’ As Deaths In UK Reach Record High

/in /by

The number of people who died while homeless in the UK reached a record high last year, reports the BBC.

The Museum of Homelessness, which compiles the data, said that 1,611 homeless people died in 2024. The figure is 9% higher than the year before, with the majority of deaths being linked to suicide or drugs, with spice and nitazenes becoming increasingly deadly. Matthew Turtle, director of the museum, said the deaths “show how homeless people continue to be deeply failed”. Homelessness Minister Alison McGovern described the figures as “heart-breaking” and said the government was “accelerating efforts to tackle the root causes of homelessness”.

The data is collated using information from coroner’s courts, media coverage, family testimony and Freedom of Information requests. The government no longer publishes official data on the numbers of deaths of homeless people. Among those who died was Anthony Marks, 51, who was assaulted in August 2024 near London’s King’s Cross station while sheltering in a bin shed. Two weeks after being released from hospital, he was readmitted following a seizure and died. Four people have been charged over his death.

“We shouldn’t be surprised that people are dying on our streets,” said Tim Renshaw, chief executive of the Archer Project, a homeless charity in Sheffield. “We have one of the worst systems in terms of making housing available to the poorest. We are looking at homelessness being related to health factors – trauma, depression, anxiety. And we’ve increasing levels of poverty.” In November 2024, three homeless women died within 10 days in Sheffield. One of those, a woman in her 40s, was buried without a single person attending her funeral.

She’d been known to homeless services in Sheffield for a number of years, said Mr Renshaw, but the name they knew her by was not her registered name. When her funeral was arranged in her official name, no-one recognised her. “It was an absolute tragedy,” he said. “We had people approaching us saying they’d liked to have attended her funeral.”

Of the 1,611 people who died homeless in 2024, three quarters were men. Two-thirds of the deaths were of people living in temporary or supported accommodation, while 169 were rough sleeping. Eleven were children, though the Ministry said the true figure was likely to be higher. The figures show that 1,142 deaths were in England, an increase of 16% on the year before.

London had the highest total number of deaths, but the largest increases were in Nottingham, where the number of deaths doubled to 22, and in Exeter, where they more than doubled from eight to 21. In Northern Ireland, deaths increased by more than a third between 2023 and 2024, to 211. Wales saw a small annual decrease, from 97 to 90. In Scotland there was an 18% reduction overall from 206 to 168. The Museum of Homelessness found that deaths in both Glasgow and Edinburgh fell by around 40%.

The figures are compiled by the Museum’s Dying Homeless Project. It says its methodology does not include any estimates and that it is the only organisation collating the figures since the Office for National Statistics stopped doing so in 2022. The deaths come as the number of people living in temporary accommodation across the UK is at record levels, while the number of people rough sleeping in England rose 20% in 2024 to 4,667, according to official statistics.

Experts working with homeless people say they have yet to see any real policy differences since Labour took office. They welcome Labour’s commitment to building 180,000 homes for social rent over the next decade, but they say consistent multi-year funding to tackle the issue is so far lacking.

“[Former housing secretary] Angela Rayner and [former homelessness minister] Rushanara Ali leaving their posts in 2025 lays bare the lack of leadership on homelessness and housing at all levels of government in the face of the worst homelessness crisis this country has ever seen,” said Mr Turtle. Homelessness Minister Alison McGovern said that government was “expanding access to safe accommodation whilst also strengthening support services. “Every loss of a life, especially the death of a child is an abject failure that cannot be tolerated,” she added.

Any action will be too late for Debby Wakeham. Her son, Richard Sanders, died in a homeless hostel in south London earlier this year. Mr Sanders, 56, had suffered from addiction and mental health problems for many years. After struggling to contact him in May, Ms Wakeham, 76, said she repeatedly called his hostel over two days. Eventually, a manager spoke to her to say “you shouldn’t have had to hear it this way but he passed away last Wednesday”. He had been dead nine days by then,” she recalls. The hostel told her they didn’t have her next-of-kin details despite, she says, leaving her number with them following a previous visit.

A post-mortem had been carried out on Mr Sanders before his mother knew he’d died and his clothes were disposed of before she could retrieve them.

She still doesn’t have a clear cause of death. “I’m livid,” she said, “I wouldn’t even know now [he’d died] if I hadn’t continued to ring.” Mr Turtle said the museum’s investigation showed “how homeless people continue to be deeply failed”. “We are calling for urgent action from the government to alleviate this crisis.”

Government Announce £84 Million Injection To Tackle Homelessness

/in /by

The cash boost is to help prevent homelessness and support families this winter and immediate help for children and families in temporary accommodation, reports Gov.Uk.

Thousands of people facing homelessness will be supported by a new £84 million cash injection to councils up and down the country – ahead of winter. Children and families in temporary accommodation will be prioritised – with the funding to go towards helping families to cover the essentials like food, school travel and laundry. The new funding, which will support children to remain in education, will be announced on World Homeless Day (10 October). It comes as record levels of households are in temporary accommodation, including nearly 170,000 children. Levels of rough sleeping have more than doubled since 2010.

Areas with the highest pressures, such as London, will be in line for the additional funding to tackle homelessness this year. This comes on top of the government’s almost £1 billion investment to tackle homelessness this year and includes the largest ever investment in prevention services, helping councils intervene early and stop homelessness before it happens. The investment provides tailored services for those experiencing long-term rough sleeping – including mental health support, drug and alcohol treatment and sustainable accommodation – ensuring people get the help they need to rebuild their lives.

Housing Secretary, Steve Reed said: “Homelessness is a moral stain on our society. Growing numbers of people have been abandoned to sleep rough on the streets and children left in squalid, overcrowded conditions. This government will not stand idly by and allow that to continue. We will make different choices. That’s why we are investing £1 billion to give homeless people the security of a roof over their heads and get back on track to end homelessness for good. Today’s investment supports delivery of the Plan for Change, in addition to:

  • £950 million to increase the supply of good temporary accommodation.
  • Abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions through the landmark Renters’ Rights Bill.
  • £39 billion investment to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation.

Homelessness Minister, Alison McGovern said: “You can’t have a decent life without a decent home. Whether it’s rough sleeping or sofa surfing or, at its worst, children stuck in B&Bs, homelessness in the UK has been too high for too long. This has to stop. Through our Plan for Change, the UK will build homes and get help to those who need it to put a roof over their head. We’re providing extra cash now to address a crisis made over the past decade.  Both the government’s £39bn to build social and affordable homes and the Child Poverty Strategy to come will tackle the root causes of this problem, but we need action now to stop homelessness getting any worse.”

Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “This funding is very welcome, especially as winter approaches and with homelessness rising. More people are likely to face the prospect of sleeping on cold streets and need support urgently. More parents will be working out how to help their children do homework from cramped and draughty temporary accommodation. We know that targeted support can make a big difference and help people take their first steps out of homelessness.”

He added: “We hope this announcement marks another step towards an ambitious homelessness strategy. Alongside a concerted effort to build social housing at scale, and ensuring all parts of Government make their contribution to ending homelessness, we can create a safer and more prosperous future for people and families across the country.”

The £84m cash injection includes:

  • Nearly £70 million for the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant. This is flexible funding for 62 local authorities to prevent people sleeping rough and help them stay off the streets. This could mean strengthening local services on offer, partnering with charities and community organisations, providing sustainable accommodation to help people sleeping rough and specialist physical and mental health support workers and treatment.
  • Nearly £11 million to help families with children living in temporary accommodation access basic facilities like Wi-Fi, laundry, travel passes for school and uniform, and help pay for food and leisure activities. While the number of children and families living in B&Bs continues to fall under this government, more must be done to get those that need it into safe, secure homes. This funding will be directed to 61 areas with the highest numbers of children in temporary accommodation to make sure that they can have access to facilities they need and support with costs while they are there.
    £3 million increase for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment element of the wider Drug and Alcohol Treatment, Recovery and Improvement Grant. This funding will be directed to 83 local authorities and a pan-London project, targeted at lifesaving support to people with drug or alcohol related issues who are sleeping rough and at risk of homelessness, including those with co-occurring mental health needs.
  • An uplift of £200,000 for the Voluntary, Community and Frontline Sector Grant which supports innovative faith and community-led initiatives such as night shelters to reduce the number of people experiencing repeat homelessness.

This funding is supporting the government’s Plan for Change to drive long-term improvements to health and education, ensuring both families and children can truly thrive and forms part of the government’s forthcoming homelessness and child poverty strategies.

‘Homeless People Not A Threat To Our Community, They Are Friends And Family’

/in /by

Sefton Council are set to purchase The Salfordian Hotel in Southport and said it has a statutory duty to prevent and relieve homelessness, reports the Liverpool Echo.

‘Homeless people are friends and family’, said Cllr Liz Dowd today (October 2) as she addressed some of the concerns raised about Sefton Council’s plans to purchase The Salfordian Hotel in Southport. Cllr Dowd was responding to objections against the proposal including a petition calling on the council to withdraw its proposal to purchase the hotel.

That petition was launched by local residents who said any future plans to house people in the hotel would ‘irrecoverably’ change the area. One group of local families, who wished to remain anonymous said: “This building would almost certainly be used for single adult men, including ex-offenders and those with complex needs, placed here before proper risk assessments are complete.”

The Salfordian Hotel is a Grade II Listed building situated opposite Hesketh Park at 37 Park Crescent in Southport. It was opened by Salford Council in 1963 to provide a holiday experience for residents and their carers, with 24-hour on-call support. The hotel has been owned by Salford City Council since the 1960s, but the local authority recently approached Sefton Council with an offer to sell the site. Understanding the pressures facing local authorities in providing accommodation to people in need, Salford Council were said to be keen for the property to remain in public ownership.

If Sefton Council decides to proceed with the purchase, it would need to apply for all necessary planning approvals before completing the sale. If planning permission is required, the council confirmed it will need to apply to the Local Planning Authority and that local residents will have an opportunity to comment or raise a petition on the application. All of this was detailed in a report to Sefton Council’s cabinet during a meeting at Bootle Town Hall this morning. The officer presenting the report said the proposal to purchase The Salfordian gives the council a ‘valuable opportunity’ to increase its supply of temporary accommodation for eligible Sefton households.

The officer added: “Here in Sefton, we continue to experience a rise in homelessness. The number of households and temporary accommodation has risen sharply, driven by factors such as an increase in demand for accommodation and a lack of suitable supply. The homelessness and rough sleeping strategy was agreed following the public consultation, and it sets out the council’s duties and responsibilities in meeting this challenge and to support this activity. In February 2025 the council approved an allocation of £1m in capital to support the homelessness support service in delivering solutions such as buying and refurbishing premises that are assessed as suitable for temporary accommodation.”

The council currently supports 270 households who are experiencing homelessness and are in temporary accommodation. Around 170 of the borough’s eligible homeless households are currently in temporary accommodation and are single people. The local authority said single-person-accommodation is in really short supply in Sefton, in both the social and private rental sectors. Purchasing the Salfordian Hotel, according to the local authority report, would allow the council to increase this supply of temporary accommodation ‘in-house’.

Responding to the report, Cllr Liz Dowd said: “Some people have raised concerns over what they think is going to happen to the building and who may live there temporarily. Indeed, some of the concerns have indicated that just because someone is homeless, that that presents some sort of threat to the community. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to provide clarity and assurance about the circumstances in which someone can find themselves homeless, and come to this council seeking support. People find themselves in a homeless situation due to a combination of factors in life that often interact with one another and often intensify. For example, these could include relationship breakdown with a partner, family or friends they are living with, evictions, landlords wishing to sell the houses they are renting.”

Cllr Dowd added: “We’ve seen a huge rise in Section 21 evictions, victims of domestic abuse, usually women, who literally have nowhere to go to escape their perpetrator. Inability to afford rent due to increased cost of living. We all know rents have increased because we all know supply is low. Market forces have driven them into homelessness. Lack of affordable housing supply making it difficult for people to move on easily. And let’s not forget our Armed Forces returning to civilian life, but who may have been suffering from PTSD or some other trauma related condition. These are the people we are talking about. ‘There but for the grace of God go we’. The circumstances I have alluded to are all too familiar to all of us here. This could be a family member or a friend, someone we deeply care about being able to get housing support they need locally in their community.”

Bootle Man Left On Housing List For 10 Years Despite Health Issues

/in /by

Sefton Council’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-29 lays bare the scale of homelessness across the borough, reports the Liverpool Echo.

A man from Bootle said he is ‘trapped’ after waiting more than ten years on the housing list. Despite his health needs and mobility issues, Wayne Berry, 52, said he has been forced into unsuitable and insecure housing due to the ‘broken system’. Mr Berry has lived in Sefton all his life and took on a private rented tenancy in March after being subject to a ‘no fault eviction’ at his previous address. The moving from flat-to-flat is not something unusual for Mr Berry, or countless others around the region, as figures show housing insecurity is on the rise across the UK.

Mr Berry said his life started to unravel after he divorced in 2010 that resulted in him becoming homeless and suffering a mental health crisis. Since then, his health has continued to deteriorate and he suffers from a range of conditions that affect his breathing and his mobility. Mr Berry relies on a crutch to get about his home and said he is in desperate need of a ground floor flat. However, he claims to have been on the housing list for more than ten years and has never been offered a social rented tenancy or a property which meets his supports needs.

After his ‘no fault eviction’ Mr Berry said he was homeless and contacted Sefton Council’s housing options (HO) team for help in finding new accommodation. He said the HO officer advised him he would qualify for the ‘top band’ on Property Pool, but due to the enormous levels of demand, the wait would likely be prolonged. So he took on a temporary solution and moved into another private rented flat in Bootle, situated on the first floor. Mr Berry said: “Housing options basically said you’ve got to be homeless or a rough sleeper just to get a place to live. In other words, things are so bad and housing is in such short supply that only those in the most desperate, helpless situations can be considered. Even then there’s no guarantee.”

He added: “This place is on the first floor and it’s painful getting up and down, and especially getting shopping up here with a crutch in one hand. My problem is that I can’t bid on new homes myself because of my dyslexia and the fact I can’t use a computer. I was assured housing options would help me bid because my conditions are on file and I need that little bit extra support.”

Mr Berry claims his wait for a more suitable property has been frustrated by the bidding process, he said: “I was forever phoning up, saying, ‘what’s going on?’ and asking ‘am I getting somewhere to live?’ They kept saying they’d call me, but I heard nothing then eventually had a discussion. They said I have to submit all these forms, but I said I can’t use a computer and that’s on my notes. The system is broke. This has been going on now for over ten years near enough, and I’m getting fed up with it, jumping through hoops trying to get a council house is just ridiculous. It hard with my disabilities, but they’re just not listening.”

Homelessness related support has reached record levels in Sefton as local authorities across the country report huge cost increases associated with managing the demand. A 2024 report by the BBC calculated that councils in England had spent £1bn on homelessness provision in the last year – a 50% rise on the year before. Since August 2023, Sefton Council said there has been an increase of more than 100% in the number of eligible households in temporary accommodation in the borough. The latest figures in 2024 show as many as 200 households per month are presenting as homeless.

The scale of homelessness in Sefton is laid bare in the local authority’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-29 which details the increasing incidence of homelessness, including both ‘hidden’ homelessness and demand for support services. The report highlights a lack of supply of affordable social housing, the impact of changes in the private rented sector market including a rise in ‘no fault evictions’, high levels of support needs and an insufficient range of housing supply to meet those needs.

The report states: “This is resulting in high usage of temporary and emergency accommodation, with people staying much longer than intended in sometimes unsuitable settings.” It adds: “[There is] a significant cohort of local people with long histories of homelessness or housing instability who are effectively circling the system, leading to deterioration of health.”

This certainly rings true to Mr Berry whose living situation has become more and more precarious over the last ten years. Since the break-up of his marriage, Mr Berry has lived in various places across Sefton, all privately rented, and, he says, insecure and unsuitable. The route to Mr Berry’s current flat can be accessed via the stairwell or a two-phase accessibility ramp. Mr Berry said: “With the winter coming, and as you can see, there’s the slopes there, and me having osteoporosis and brittle bones disease, what happens if it’s icy out there and I can’t get out to the shop? I need a ground floor flat or a one-bedroom bungalow. I’m 52 now and my health’s getting worse. I’m in constant pain every day, from the moment I wake up. I don’t want a palace or a pot of gold, I just want a chance to live decently. Instead of that security, I’m stuck waiting here for another knock on the door telling me I have to find somewhere else to live, and then back to square one. It’s a s**t storm.”

The Liverpool Echo understands that Sefton Council are aware of Mr Berry’s housing situation and maintain they have tried to contact him to resolve the issues raised. In addition, the council made it clear that if Mr Berry is able to get the completed forms to the housing options team, it would be happy to progress his application. Responding to this, Mr Berry said: “It just shows that I’m trapped in the system. Stuck like so many others because I’ve told them I’m dyslexic and I can’t use a computer. You tell me what I can do?”

Homeless People Needed Protecting From Hot Weather More Than Ever Before In 2025

/in /by

Local authorities stepped in at least 149 times by mid-July this year compared to 93 times across the entirety of summer in 2024, reports the Big Issue.

People experiencing homelessness on the street were given shelter from extreme heat a record number of times this year, an investigation has found. Carbon Brief submitted freedom of information requests to 93 local authorities across England and Wales to find out how many times councils had invoked the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (Swep) to deal with heat-related emergencies. Local authorities can choose to bring rough sleepers indoors to protect them from extreme weather under the protocol, although it is not funded by central government and there is no legal requirement to do so. Some authorities may also distribute water and sunscreen.

Carbon Brief found that Swep was used a record number of times to deal with heat-related emergencies this summer. By halfway through the summer in July, Swep had already been triggered 149 times – up from 93 across the whole summer in 2024. Big Issue has previously reported on how climate change is leading to more frequent and longer periods of extreme weather, leading to greater financial burdens for councils to provide shelter during Swep.

Dr Becky Ward, a researcher at the University of Southampton who is investigating how climate change interacts with homelessness, told Carbon Brief that “the conversation is changing and awareness is building” about the dangers heat poses on the street. “There’s a more fundamental need to improve the provision of shelter for people experiencing homelessness, alongside providing psychological support to address the causes and maintaining factors for people who are rough sleeping,” said Dr Ward.

The Met Office declared 2025 the hottest summer on record last month. By mid-July, the UK Health Security Agency announced around 40 heat-health alerts across different parts of England. The warnings are issued when temperatures indicate a threat to public health, including rough sleepers who may have underlying health conditions or other vulnerabilities. Carbon Brief asked councils with significant rough sleeping populations, including all 33 London boroughs, whether councils had been using Swep, how often and on which dates, during the summer months from 2022 to 2025.

A total of 59 councils – almost two-thirds  – confirmed that they had activated Swep at least once during the summer months between 2022 and 2025. Despite the unprecedented heat, at least 20 of the councils Carbon Brief quizzed said they have never triggered Swep during the summer months, dating back to 2022. Others failed to provide any information when asked. But the number of days Swep was in operation for in 2025 is also a record high. Traditionally, Swep is largely associated with cold weather but climate change is shifting that reality.

There is a growing realisation that action is needed to counter extreme heat – the UK government issued its first guidance for helping homeless people during hot weather in 2023. By July 2025, 48 councils had triggered heat-related use of SWEPs, compared to just 36 two years earlier. But Swep is also needed in other conditions too – Big Issue recently reported on a case in Blackpool where a man died when the tent where he was sleeping was struck by a falling tree branch in high winds. The local council confirmed to Big Issue that Swep was not in operation at the time the man died.

The Museum of Homelessness previously studied the application of Swep back in 2023 to “inconsistently applied” and “inadequate”. In response to Carbon Brief’s findings, Matthew Turtle, co-director of the Museum of Homelessness, said that Swep should be made a legal requirement to protect rough sleepers. Turtle said: “These findings, like our own research, show that many councils opt not to help people who need it the most when there is extreme weather… This is not just smaller councils, but includes major towns and cities across the UK, who simply have no emergency protocol in place to protect people who are homeless during spells of extreme weather.”

Brain Disease Linked To Boxers Found In Homeless People

/in /by

Scientists found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of people who had experienced homelessness – the first time the disease had been found in a European non-athlete population, reports the Big Issue.

An illness linked to repetitive head injuries seen in contact sports such as boxing and American football has been found in the brains of people experiencing homelessness for the first time. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) develops after repeated blows to the head often seen in athletes or people who have served in the military. It can be linked to mood swings, aggression, memory loss and movement problems, but can only be confirmed after death by testing for a distinctive build-up of a brain protein called tau.

Researchers from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, the University of Toronto and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, found evidence of the disease in people experiencing homelessness. They examined 34 post-mortem brains from adults aged 41-67, mostly men. The results found four people had evidence of CTE while two more showed closely related damage. It is the first confirmation of the disease in a European non-athlete population.

First author Dr Krisztina Danics, assistant professor at Semmelweis University’s department of pathology, forensic and insurance medicine, said: “Our focus here was to explore pathological brain changes in a very vulnerable, overlooked group expecting to find early forms of more common conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It was a surprise to discover CTE in people with no elite sport or military background. This supports the notion that repeated head impacts can add up over a lifetime – even outside stadiums.”

The authors of the study, published in the peer-reviewed Acta Neuropathologica journal, said brain injuries are far more common in homeless people than in the general population, often from falls, assaults, or accidents. But they added that sometimes violent or aggressive behaviour among people experiencing homelessness may be not only a cause but also a consequence of underlying brain damage. In the CTE cases, the pattern of brain damage in memory-related regions differed from those seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Other age-related changes were common across the group, and four cases showed another form of neurological disorder usually seen in later life known as argyrophilic brain disease, even though they were relatively young people. Before this, similar CTE-related brain changes had been also documented in women in Australia subjected to domestic violence over a long period.

Dr Gabor G Kovacs, professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology at the University of Toronto, added: “Seeing CTE in a central European homeless cohort should change the conversation: it’s not only the disease of athletes, and recognising it matters for care, social services, and even how courts think about behaviour and responsibility.”

Mixed-Sex Hostels ‘Terrifying’ For Homeless Women

/in /by

Homeless women calling for more female-only services have said they avoid mixed-sex hostels because they can be “ruthless” and “terrifying”, reports the BBC.

One, who found herself in a mixed-sex hostel in Sunderland, said three men “were taken out in body bags” during the first week she stayed there. The housing charity Shelter believes the number of female rough sleepers in north-east England has risen by 425% in five years, but that many women stay hidden from statistics because they avoid sleeping on the streets or using hostels. Next week, councils on Tyneside will for the first time be included in the Women’s Rough Sleeping Census, aimed at getting an accurate picture of the extent of the problem.

The first census, in 2022, was conducted solely in London, but last year a further 55 council areas were included and the results revealed more than 10 times as many, external women sleeping rough in England than government data had suggested. Newcastle, Gateshead and South Tyneside councils have all signed up to this year’s census which takes place from Monday for seven days.

Ahead of it, two homeless women shared their difficulties finding safe shelter in the North East. Jay said a mixed-sex hostel she went to in Sunderland “was ruthless, full of alcoholics, drug users”. She said: “First week I was there, three lads were taken out in body bags. I was terrified. I was fighting to survive every single day.” According to Jay, the hostel, which has since closed down, did not carry out full background checks on residents.

“You could be in there with a nasty person. That’s a risk women think of before they pick up that phone.” She said domestic abuse victims have a particular need for female-only accommodation. “I suffer PTSD and the thought of being around blokes who’d been in jail was scary.” Meanwhile Leanne spent months sofa-surfing because she was “too scared” to live in a mixed-sex hostel after a traumatic experience. “People called us the bag lady because I used to carry all my bags everywhere.”

Tracey Guy, from Shelter North East, said many homeless women were falling under the radar as they tried to avoid frightening or dangerous situations. “They will sleep in cars, accident and emergency units, fast-food outlets,” she said. “Or they stay with perpetrators [of abuse] because, actually, an unsafe situation feels safer than sleeping in a doorway.”

Jay now lives in a female-only house run by the charity Emmaus North East. Chief executive Ruth Parker said most of the women they supported had suffered trauma, domestic abuse and sexual violence. “Putting a person who has faced that on to the street, where they are vulnerable to those things again, we have to try and eradicate.” Emmaus plans to open a new women-only premises in 2026, but Mrs Parker said more were needed. “Supported accommodation, specific to women, has to be high priority.”

The BBC asked all local authorities in the North East about their current homeless provision. Most have beds in mixed-sex hostels, but some councils have no female-only provision at all. To better understand the scale of the problem, this year’s Women’s Rough Sleeping Census is being carried out between 22 and 28 September.

With Newcastle City Council joining it for the first time, Councillor Paula Maines, cabinet member for housing, said: “We can use the data to make sure that we have the services that women need, but also we can pressurise government to get more money in.” The findings of the census are due to be released in October. Homeless charities said they hoped the results could reveal truer numbers and lead to more support for women like Jay and Leanne.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “The Women’s Census helps us understand the challenges women face when getting the right support. We’re spending £1 billion on vital services so that women who are sleeping rough can get safe and appropriate help. This is a first step to get us back on track towards ending homelessness once and for all.”