"Government's complacent attitude has failed homeless" say MPs

The extent of homelessness across England is a national crisis.

 

It is appalling that at any one time there are as many as 9,100 people sleeping rough on our streets.

 

More than 78,000 households, including over 120,000 children, are homeless and housed in temporary accommodation, which can often be of a very poor standard.

 

In addition there are ‘hidden homeless’ people who are housed by family and friends in shifting circumstances, but not captured as part of the official figures.

 

Homelessness can be a devastating blight on the lives of those who experience it: the average rough sleeper dies before the age of 50, and children in long term temporary accommodation miss far more schooling than their peers.

 

The homelessness crisis has been growing for some time: since 2010 the number of households in temporary accommodation, for example, has increased by more than 60%, and since March 2011 the number of people who sleep rough has risen by 134%. 

 

The Department for Communities and Local Government’s attitude to reducing homelessness has been unacceptably complacent. The limited action that it has taken has lacked the urgency that is so badly needed and its “light touch” approach to working with the local authorities tackling homelessness has clearly failed.

 

The Department is placing great reliance on the new Homelessness Reduction Act to provide the solution to homelessness.

 

While this new legislation will no doubt help, it cannot be successful unless it is matched by a renewed focus across government on tackling the twin issues of both the supply and affordability of decent housing, which underlie the causes of homelessness.

 

COMMENT FROM PAC CHAIR MEG HILLIER MP

 

“The latest official figures hammer home the shameful state of homelessness in England and the abject failure of the Government’s approach to addressing the misery suffered by many thousands of families and individuals.

 

“As we approach Christmas there are thousands of children in temporary accommodation – a salutary reminder of the human cost of policy failure.

 

“The evidence we heard from organisations that work with homeless people should serve as a wake-up call: Government decisions are not made in a vacuum and the consequences can be severe.

 

“The Government must do more to understand and measure the real-world costs and causes of homelessness and put in place the joined-up strategy that is so desperately needed.

 

“That means properly addressing the shortage of realistic housing options for those at risk of homelessness or already in temporary accommodation. More fundamentally, it means getting a grip on the market’s failure to provide genuinely affordable homes, both to rent and to buy.

 

“Delegating a problem is not a solution and we do not share the Government’s faith in the cure-all potential of the Homelessness Reduction Act.

 

“There are practical steps it can take now – for example, targeting financial support on local authorities with acute shortages of suitable housing, rather than those councils which are simply ready to spend – that would make a real difference to people’s lives.

 

“We urge it to respond positively and swiftly to the recommendations set out in our Report.”

 

Note: The Government’s latest figures for statutory homelessness and prevention and relief were published on 14 December and are available here.

 

 

REPORT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 

The Department has not shown enough urgency in addressing the growing crisis of homelessness. Since 2010, all measures of homelessness in England have risen. The number of children living in temporary accommodation has increased by 73% to 120,170, and the number of people counted as sleeping rough has more than doubled to 4,134. Those who work with homeless people estimate that the true extent of homelessness is much higher. Crisis has estimated that 9,100 people were sleeping rough at any one time in 2016. The rise in homelessness was clear over five years ago, yet it is only now that the Department has acknowledged that its light touch approach has not worked and is actively starting to work more closely with local authorities. However, local councils cannot solve this alone and working more closely with local authorities is no substitute for emphatic government action. Homelessness can have a devastating impact on those who suffer it, and the Department needs to act now to bring together the stakeholders who can make a difference quickly.

 

Recommendation: The Department should, by the end of June 2018, publish a cross-government strategy for reducing homelessness that sets out clear targets and specific actions for all stakeholders to reduce all measures of homelessness.

 

 

Government departments are not working together effectively enough to address the national problem of homelessness. Organisations working with homeless people told us repeatedly that the government needs to tackle homelessness in a joined-up way and not ignore the impact of the decisions it makes, including freezing and capping local housing allowance as part of welfare reforms, on the numbers of people made homeless. While the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions told us that they work together to assess the impact of welfare reforms, they have yet to assess the impact of recent changes to Local Housing Allowance have had on homelessness. The government has made a commitment to eliminate rough sleeping by 2027, but this will address only the tip of the iceberg. Only 9,100 of the 160,000 households that will experience the most acute forms of homelessness in any year will sleep rough.

 

Recommendation: The Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions should work together to ensure that clear progress is made against the targets and measures in the strategy.

 

The Department for Communities and Local Government should, by the end of 2018, write to the Committee to explain what reductions have been made across all measures of homelessness.

 

The Department for Work and Pensions should, by the end of 2018, write to the Committee to set out what work it has undertaken to identify any elements of welfare reform that are having an impact on homelessness and what steps it has taken to mitigate them.

 

 

There is an unacceptable shortage of realistic housing options for households that are either homeless or are at immediate risk of homelessness. The decreasing number of homes available for social rent means that many local authorities use private accommodation providers to meet this need. This accommodation is often of a poor standard and does not offer value for money. Some of the most vulnerable households at risk of homelessness can also find that they only have limited options for rehousing in the private rented sector. Shelter told us that six out of ten landlords nationwide will not let to people in receipt of benefits due to concerns that their income is unstable and will not rise in line with the cost of renting.

 

Recommendation: The Department should take steps to eliminate the use of non-decent temporary accommodation and to enable local authorities to replace this supply with local alternatives that offer better value for money.

 

 

The supply of genuinely affordable housing does not match the needs of families and vulnerable groups and has exacerbated the increase in homelessness. The Department has a strategic objective of increasing the supply of new homes across the country. Yet it acknowledged that in many areas the housing market is failing to supply enough homes to match housing need. Local authorities are responsible for planning to increase housing supply, but even where targets for social housing are ambitious, across the country too few of the homes we need for social rent are being built. The Department has recognised this and announced additional funding in the Autumn Budget 2017 to enable local authorities to increase the supply of new housing. The Department plans to target funding at local authorities that are ready to spend it quickly rather than those areas with the most acute shortage of housing. This could mean that local authorities with housing need but not at the same position of readiness will not receive this funding.

 

Recommendation: The Department should write to the Committee by the end of January 2018 to set out: how it will ensure that the supply of new genuinely affordable housing will be matched to areas of housing need; and how it will monitor the impact that this has on driving down the number of households in temporary accommodation.

 

 

The Department lacks the proper understanding of those who are homeless that it needs to ensure that they are being helped effectively. The Department accepted that its previous system for collecting data on homeless households was seriously limited. It does not seem either to understand or measure the extent of hidden homelessness, and has not modelled the costs and causes of homelessness recently. The Department is developing a new data system that it hopes will allow it to track individuals’ experiences of homelessness and the impact this has on them. The Department is putting great faith in this data system and the accompanying duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act on local authorities and expects it to be a turning point in reducing the level of homelessness. It also expects to use the data the new data system will hold to allow it to understand and make links between administrative information on homeless households and their income, health and wellbeing, and interactions with other public services. We are sceptical that the Department will really achieve all that it told us is possible with its new data system.

 

Recommendation: The Department, supported by data from the Department for Work and Pensions, should ensure that its new homelessness data system: helps it to estimate the wider costs of homelessness to public services; enables local authorities to access information on when homeless people have entered and exited the welfare system to monitor its impact on their housing situation; enables it to measure the full extent of hidden homelessness; and shows where local services are, and are not, effective at helping those who are homeless.