New government figures on homelessness released today
show:
· In
the last year, 2,520 people aged 60 and over were accepted as
homeless – a staggering rise of 40% in the last five years, and
the highest number for over a
decade.
· There
are 38,390 single parent families who are homeless and living in
temporary accommodation – a rise of 54% in the last five
years.
· Single
parent families account for 63% of
all homeless families living in temporary accommodation, despite
making up just 23% of all families in
England - showing they are disproportionately affected by
homelessness.
Polly Neate, CEO of Shelter,
said: “It’s clear that our country is
in the firm grip of a housing crisis as these figures starkly
show, with older people and single parents both bearing the
brunt.
“Something as simple as a family breakdown can push older
people from a shared family home into private renting, yet huge
rents and unforgiving welfare cuts mean they lose their
homes.
“If we want to protect more people from the ravages of
homelessness, the government must come up with a bold new plan
for social housing and in the short term, ensure housing benefit
covers the actual cost of rents.”
Notes to the editor
-
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
(MHCLG) statistics were released for the three months from
January 2018 to March 2018. They are available
here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
-
The last twelve months of data is from April 2017 to
March 2018. We compared this to data from April 2012 to March
2013.
-
The number of people aged 60 and over accepted as
homeless by their local council is from the Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Live
homelessness table 781. This is the highest it has been since
2005/06.
-
The number of families and single parent families in
temporary accommodation is from the Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Live table 782 and
775_England. In the last year the number of families has
increased by 0.3% and the number of single parents has
increased by 4%.
-
The number of families in temporary accommodation is of
March 2018. We compared this to data from March 2013 and March
2017.
-
The percentage of families that are single parent
families in England is calculated using the English Housing
Survey 2016-17, Annex Table 1.3. We define families as
households with at least one dependent child. The data is
available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/676433/2016-17_Section_1_Households_Annex_Tables.xlsx
