Manchester’s Homeless Single Mums

At the end of last year more than 1,100 single mothers in Manchester found themselves stuck in temporary accommodation, reports Manchester Evening News.

Increasingly, more women are now relying on temporary accommodation, as they are priced out of decent, affordable housing. According to new government data on homelessness, between October and December last year, 1,106 single females with dependant children were living in temporary housing in the city. That was a 12 per cent rise from 2021, more than double the national average of five per cent. It comes as the number of people living in hotels, bed and breakfasts, and other makeshift accommodation in the country rose to over 100,000 – the highest number in 18 years.

In Manchester, where the number of people living in temporary housing is the highest of any local authority outside London, 3,194 people and 1,981 families were without a permanent home at the end of 2022. At the time, Manchester Council said it takes complaints about mould extremely seriously and ‘will work with landlords to ensure they are resolved as a matter of priority where it is identified as causing a health risk.’ They said they had also recently invested in a new housing management and inspections team to ‘improve standards in temporary accommodation across the city’.

Deborah Garvey, policy manager at Shelter, says the main reasons why so many single mothers are finding themselves homeless and stuck in temporary accommodation are soaring prices in the private rental market, and a lack of social housing. “It’s incredibly worrying,” she said. “They feature so heavily in the figures because if you are in need of a family home and you only have one income and you are competing with couples it is very difficult to afford anything.” Huge rent hikes in Manchester, which are being driven in part by the cost of living crisis and increased demand, means affordable housing is running scarcely low. At the end of last year, the average cost to rent a flat in Manchester peaked at £1,127 – the highest in 16 years.

Between October and December last year, 522 people and 137 families were living in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation, according to the latest government statistics. Manchester City Council have acknowledged that bed and breakfasts are not suitable for families, and launched a new plan at the end of last year to reduce the reliance on this type of temporary accommodation. They say the number of families in Bed and Breakfast-type accommodation has reduced from 227 at its peak to 81 now.

Local organisations have also warned that a significant proportion of single mothers who have found themselves homeless are those who have been the victim of domestic abuse. Sam Pratt, who works for the Shared Health Foundation, warned that many women will have taken on debt as a result of coercive or controlling relationship – which makes it hard to secure housing “Domestic violence is a massive culprit for causing families – particularly single mothers – to become homeless,” he said. “You can’t bid on social housing if you are in debt but if you are in debt you get evicted from housing. If you link that to domestic violence, quite often the abuser will put the debt in the victim’s name.”

A DLUHC spokesperson said: “Over 600,000 households have been prevented from becoming homeless or supported into settled accommodation since 2018 but we know there is more to be done to help families at risk of losing their homes. We are giving councils £1 billion through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, to help them prevent and tackle homelessness targeted in areas where it is needed most.”