Tenant group claims rising rents to blame for homelessness increase

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Tenant group claims rising rents to blame for homelessness increase

A tenant group and a homelessness charity have claimed that unaffordable private rents and a chronic lack of social housing are forcing more people into homelessness.

The Renters’ Reform Coalition and Crisis warned that increasing numbers of people are being pushed into temporary accommodation or onto the streets as freezing temperatures set in.

Government figures show that nearly a third of households in temporary accommodation, 42,740, are housed outside their local area, an increase of 10% in just one year.

Unaffordable rents put people at risk of homelessness

Re-posting an article from The Independent on X (formerly Twitter) about the lack of affordable housing pushing more people into temporary accommodation and onto the streets, the Renters’ Reform Coalition claimed unaffordable private rents are to blame.

Renters’ Reform Coalition posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Unaffordable rents put people at risk of homelessness.

“Along with a lack of social housing, this means that more people are forced onto the streets in this freezing cold weather.

“The government must address the cost of renting crisis.”

The private sector isn’t affordable

Francesca Albanese, director of policy and social change at Crisis, told The Independent: “We are seeing a massive increase in temporary accommodation and seeing record levels of people accessing them. There isn’t enough social housing, and the private sector isn’t affordable, and that is decades in the making.

“It’s very unsettling for individuals; becoming homeless is very isolating and dangerous. With shelters and emergency accommodation, people come in for a few days when the weather is cold, but it’s very difficult to then engage in that support someone might need, and link them to the right services in the long term.”

She added with the cold weather more and more people are accessing emergency accommodation.

Ms Albanese said: “These kinds of shelter are facing pressures of their own in terms of provision, as we’ve seen rough sleeping going up but we’ve not seen huge increases in funding for emergency accommodation. Emergency provision such as this is vital and lifesaving, and we know people can’t survive when temperatures plummet, and we know it doesn’t cover everybody and there needs to be more of it.”

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