Homelessness in the UK - 2017 Appeal

There’s a legal duty for the state to help people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Councils are responsible for this in England, Wales and Scotland, while Northern Ireland has a single organisation responsible for housing.

Homelessness in England

Not everyone who becomes homeless is entitled to be housed.
In England councils only have a duty to find somewhere for a person to live if they have a ‘priority need’. This includes families with children, people in an emergency after a flood or fire, or who are “vulnerable” for various other reasons. In addition, they must not have deliberately done or failed to do anything that caused them to become homeless.
 
These figures don’t include those who were assessed as homeless but not in priority need, or homeless but intentionally so.

There are around 20,000 cases found homeless but not in priority need each year, or around 18% of all decisions. Around 8% of cases, or 9,000 households, are homeless and in need but intentionally so.

If councils decide someone is not in priority need they have to offer advice and help with finding somewhere to live, but not accommodation. If they decide someone is intentionally homeless and in priority need, they only have to provide short-term accommodation.

Photos: Feeding the homeless project in Newport with our patner businesses.

Changes to homelessness in Wales

In 2014, the Welsh government passed a law placing what it described as a “stronger duty” on councils than under the 1996 Housing Act, which previously applied to Wales as well as England.

It means that Welsh councils now have to provide everyone, whether homeless or not, with housing advice and assistance. And there are now fewer exceptions in Wales on when the council has to find accommodation for a homeless person or family.

Everyone in Wales who becomes homeless (and isn’t disqualified because of their immigration status) is now entitled to accommodation for up to 56 days. After that, it’s back to priority need and whether they have become homeless intentionally. Welsh councils can, however, decide not to require people to be intentionally homeless before they can be housed.

We can’t say how these changes have affected the number of households who are homeless in Wales. The new data isn’t comparable to the old, according to Welsh government statisticians.

Temporary accommodation

People can be put in temporary accommodation while their claim is investigated or they are waiting for somewhere suitable. Temporary accommodation can include B&Bs, hostels, council housing and private rentals.

In England 63% of households who accepted an offer of housing in the first quarter of 2016 were given temporary accommodation. 84% of them were placed in “self-contained accommodation”, such as council or private rentals. The rest were in B&B or hostel-style accommodation.

73% of English households in temporary accommodation were in London.
At the end of June, 73,000 households were in temporary accommodation. This is 9% higher than in 2015. The number has been increasing steadily since 2011, but is still well under the peak of 101,000 in 2004.
 
Around one in 10 households in temporary accommodation were in bed and breakfasts in early 2016. Governments have been concerned about families with children being placed in B&Bs since the early 2000s. Since April 2004, the law has said that families with children should not be housed in B&Bs except in an emergency, and then only for six weeks.
3,400 families with children were in B&Bs in the second quarter of 2016. This has been increasing since 2011, but is below the peak of 7,000 in 2002.

Photos: Feeding the homeless project in Newport with our patner businesses.

Rough sleeping

People who are legally homeless are “rarely” on the streets, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government. We don’t have definitive statistics for how many people are sleeping rough.

In England the number of people sleeping rough is a snapshot taken in autumn each year. Councils count or estimate the number of people sleeping rough in their area. Most authorities talk to local agencies and give an estimate.

Last year, 3,600 people were estimated to be sleeping rough in England. This is 30% higher than in 2014, and double the estimate of 1,800 for 2010 (the earliest comparable data).

In London a much more detailed database is kept. CHAIN records people found sleeping rough by outreach teams. 8,100 people were seen sleeping rough at some point in 2015/16, slightly more than in the previous year but 25% more than in 2012/13.

A parliamentary committee investigating homelessness has recommended that a system like CHAIN be used in more areas.