A new study reveals as many as one in 25 people are classed as homeless in the worst-affected areas of England.

Homeless charity Shelter said more than 268,000 people across England are homeless, although the number is a “conservative estimate”, with many more expected to be going unrecorded. It said the leading cause was the loss of a private tenancy, with three in 10 cases coming as a result. Meanwhile, Shelter has launched an urgent appeal to raise money for front-line services.

The definition of homelessness under law includes rough sleepers, single people in hostels and those in temporary accommodation. Under these criteria, say Shelter, at least one in 206 people in England are classed as being homeless. Broken down, this results in around 4,100 people sleeping on the streets and at least 242,000 in temporary accommodation. A further 21,000 are either in hostels or being housed temporarily by social services.

London has the highest proportion of homelessness in the country, accounting for 31 of the worst hotspots – with the borough of Newham recording one in 25 people as homeless. The number of temporary accommodation households has risen from 35,850 in 2011 to 54,280 at the start of 2017. Shelter believes at least 35% of those households will still be in unreliable homes in a year’s time, showing little end in sight for many. This is partly down to the number of people losing private tenancies, which the charity says has soared since cuts to housing benefits started in 2011.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, is calling for an “ambitious new direction” from the government to tackle the issue, saying: “On a daily basis, we speak to hundreds of people and families who are desperately trying to escape the devastating trap of homelessness. [It is] a trap that is tightening thanks to decades of failure to build enough affordable homes and the impact of welfare cuts.

According to the BBC Reality Check, homelessness has been rising rapidly since 2010, but it’s difficult to know exactly how many people don’t have anywhere to live. Estimates of rough sleepers are calculated by counting people on a single night, and potentially millions of “sofa surfers” go under the radar.

Shelter, has pieced together various data sources to arrive at their figure. They used official data on how many households are living in temporary accommodation to calculate how many individual people that equates to. They looked at hostel bed occupancy to include people who turn up without being referred by the council, often paying a fee to stay, who don’t appear in official figures. And they asked councils how many homeless families they were accommodating, giving a much higher figure than the 78,180 homeless households usually quoted.

The government said it was “determined to tackle all forms of homelessness”.

A man who gave his “favourite” £120 trainers to a barefoot homeless man says the act has inspired other good deeds after his story was shared around the world.

Craig Wells ran out of a restaurant in Nottingham after seeing the homeless man, Mark, walk past wearing no shoes. “He then started to cry and gave me the biggest hug saying how nobody has ever been so kind. He then went around the corner out of sight and put the trainers on and re-emerged still crying,” Mr Wells wrote.

Mr Wells shared a photo on Facebook to encourage other people to “pass it on” and help someone in need. “There is nothing worse than self-praise and I certainly don’t want it”, wrote Mr Wells, from Chesterfield. “If someone is encouraged to step out and help someone in need by this message then Love wins!!!”

Since then, the photo has been shared more than 4,000 times and liked more than 9,000 times. Mr Wells said it resulted in “hundreds of private messages” from people “all over the world”.

One man, from Jakarta in Indonesia, told Mr Wells he had gone out and bought lunch for a homeless person. “It may sound a bit fluffy but love really does make a difference in a world,” said Mr Wells.

He said he had also heard from several members of Mark’s family who thanked him for “being so kind”. Mr Wells, who describes himself as a “committed Christian” and attends Christian Life Church in Chesterfield, said he simply wants to “open people’s eyes and offer hope to the homeless and other people in need”.

Last Wednesday (25.10.17) the Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced that the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap will not apply to supported housing from April 2019. This is fantastic news for the supported housing sector and its residents and is a result of sustained campaigning from Homeless Link and others over the past few years.

Mrs May said: “This is something we have been looking at for the past year. It will look at a wide range of issues. It needs to make sure the funding model is right to ensure providers of supported housing are able to access funding effectively. We will not apply the Local Housing Allowance cap to supported housing. Indeed we will not be implementing it in the wider social rented sector, and the full details will be made available when we publish our response to the consultation.”

Opposition to the use of the LHA, as a basis for a new funding system, has been almost universal since it was first announced. Housing professionals had warned that capping the amount of support available for schemes such as sheltered accommodation, women’s refuges and extra-care facilities would mean they would cease to function.

Supported housing costs more because it relies on far more than simple bricks and mortar: slashing the money available meant many housing associations announced they would have to mothball plans for such schemes.

The lack of relationship between the LHA rate and the costs of supported housing, compounded by the regional disparities in rates, mean that it was never appropriate for our sector.

At this stage, there are no further details available on what alternatives to the LHA rate the Government might be considering, however, the Prime Minister indicated that full details will be published on Tuesday (31st October). This victory on the LHA cap is significant, but we know there are still a number of challenges related to any new model, such as the incompatibility of Universal Credit and short-term accommodation.

Homeless Link’s Chief Executive, Rick Henderson, commented: “The Prime Minister’s announcement marks a significant victory for the supported housing sector and the thousands of vulnerable individuals it supports.”

“Homeless Link, working with our members, has campaigned tirelessly for the Government to drop their highly controversial plans to apply the LHA rate to supported housing, and are pleased that our concerns have been listened to. We must be certain that the revised plans work for the full range of vital supported housing services, and look forward to continued collaboration with our members and with Government to ensure we secure a sustainable future for the supported housing sector.

There are fears that funding to help vulnerable people with housing will be cut, despite promises to protect it.

The £125m Supporting People programme will no longer be ring-fenced in the Welsh Government’s budget in 2019-20, as ministers revealed spending details. Instead, it will be merged with other pots of money, giving councils more flexibility to decide how it is spent.

Plaid Cymru said it wanted “urgent clarification”, as the scheme was central to its deal to back the budget. Earlier in October, ministers announced there would be no cuts to the grants as part of a 2-year agreement with Plaid Cymru.

The Supporting People programme pays for things such as hostels and support workers for vulnerable people, including victims of domestic abuse and people with chronic illnesses. Documents published on Tuesday show that the same amount of money has been included in the draft budget, but it will no longer be protected.

Katie Dalton, director of Cymorth Cymru, which represents services for the homeless, said: “We are extremely concerned that this budget, which specifically focuses on homelessness and housing-related support, has merged with several programmes that have no direct relation to housing or homelessness prevention. This decision is both baffling and dangerous at a time when Welsh Government and third sector statistics show that homelessness and rough sleeping is rapidly increasing across Wales.”

Plaid Cymru finance spokesman, Steffan Lewis, said: “Plaid Cymru is seeking urgent clarification from the Welsh Government on the Supporting People budget, which formed a central part of our Budget agreement between our two parties.”

But Communities Secretary Carl Sargeant insisted there were “no cuts to the Supporting People grant”. He said: “In 2019-20 it will be included in a different budget line, which allows for the creation of a new wider grant but the level of Welsh Government funding will be consistent with 2017-18 levels.”

Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said the spending plans were limited by UK government policy. “It is inevitable that the impact of austerity is real – we cannot simply wipe it away,” he said. “But we have done our very best to make sure that, at the front line, the impact is as moderated as we can manage it in these difficult circumstances.”

On Tuesday, October 10^th, a number of Merseyside organisations took part in the 10^th Anniversary of Liverpool Homeless FC.

The monthly event takes place on the last Tuesday of every month and has been the foundation for Liverpool Homeless FC’s eleven-a-side team. Ste Barton, organiser of the event, manages to assemble a team of volunteers who help out not only during the tournament but also for other local events around Merseyside throughout the year.

Since establishing the league in 2007, LHFC have helped many of the city’s most vulnerable people access education and help them gain long term accommodation. The monthly tournament currently consists of 18 homelessness organisations that operate across Merseyside. The club also runs a women’s team who train once a week and play in a Futsal League.

Once again the emphasis of the event was on inclusion, fun and moving lives forward. The event also coincided with World Homeless Day which provided the perfect platform to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the stage an ‘international day’ provides.

The football kicked off at 10.30am and saw our consortium colleagues New Start’s team play eventual winners Mas in a tightly contested 3-2 loss for New Start. All competitors were awarded with a medal while individual players and referees were recognised for their outstanding performances on the day.

If you are a company and would like to support LHFC or if you are an individual who would like to get involved then contact:

Email: info@liverpoolhomelessfootballclub.com

Telephone: 0151 237 3986

Address: Liverpool Homeless Football Club, 151 Dale Street, Liverpool L2  2AH

Twitter: @LivHomelessFC