Preventing Homelessness Should Be The Government’s Priority

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“The single biggest cause of homelessness in England is now private landlords ending assured shorthold tenancies, leaving nowhere for turfed-out tenants to go: sticking-plaster solutions once people find themselves bedding down in shop doorways aren’t likely to result in long-term housing for the thousands of people on the streets.”

So said Dawn Foster in an excellent piece on the Queen’s speech in The Guardian last week. She points out that demand for temporary accommodation provided by councils has risen sharply as people have been made homeless because they can’t afford to pay the exorbitant rents imposed by private landlords.

However, and here’s the rub, local authorities can make it difficult for people to apply for housing because they have had to live in the area for three years, have been evicted, and be a ‘priority case’ to qualify.

To put this into perspective, the most recent statistics on rough sleeping in England show that last autumn there were 3,569 sleeping rough, up by a third on the previous year.

To tackle this, she says, the government has to:

  • Accept a duty to prevent homelessness rather than refusing to help until crisis point;
  • Accept that homelessness is a symptom of a wider problem, with the housing market dominated by private renting that focuses on economic gain; and
  • House everyone who needs housing, rather than attempting to force a triage system on lives and households that results in young families stuck in temporary accommodation for months, and single homeless people falling through the gaps in care and remaining on the street.

“The problem is that these solutions cost a little more in the short term. In the long term, however, housing someone at risk of homelessness involves a small outlay that prevents costs incurred by councils, police and the NHS if homelessness becomes entrenched and rough sleepers become the responsibility of multiple services.”

“If the Queen’s speech pledged full support to anyone facing homelessness in England, it would be a massive step forward: instead we are likely to see another small bung of cash promised in a similar manner to the autumn statement’s announcement, given to councils who have lost more funding than Osborne is willing to redress, to grab a quick headline without denting the problem.”