Mr Void here attempts to reveal the true extent of homelessness in Britain, while rightly condemning the fact that neither party deems this to be an important issues that needs confronting in the run-up to the election. He gives the background information on how unreliable the official statistics are.
Tackling homelessness is the task of the local authorities, who use informal methods of estimating its extent, and who are only obliged to tackle priority cases. Thus, in addition to the 53,000 odd families now on the streets, there may be a further 40,000 single people, and over a quarter of a million ‘hidden homeless’ couples or single people, sleeping on friends’ couches.
He also explains the root cause of this rise in homelessness in IDS’ welfare reforms, caps on housing benefit, and ‘affordable rents’ which are anything but. He believes that neither party wishes to tackle the true extent of this problem, as they are either in the pocket of the landlords or landlords themselves. And the problem will get worse with the continued destruction of council housing at proper social rents, as well as IDS’ plans to sell off council houses completely.
How private sector evictions are driving homelessness. AST stands for Assured Shorthold Tenancy. Graph from Crisis.
Figures showing that statutory homelessness has soared in England by 27% since this government weren’t elected do not even scratch the surface of the desperate homelessness epidemic.
53,250 families were accepted as homeless in 2014, up from 41,780 five years earlier and the latest official homelessness statistics uncover some stark facts about those without a home. There are now twice the number of families living in B&Bs than in 2010 and the number who have been there over six weeks has leapt by an appalling 500%. This is a practice which had almost died out, but as demand for temporary housing has risen over the the last five years there are no longer enough hostels, refuges and other forms of emergency accommodation for the growing numbers of homeless families.
These statistics come after
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