Child homelessness has risen 50 per cent since Christmas 2013 and is now 120,000

Last Updated: November 10, 2016By Tags: , , ,
[Image: Shelter.]

[Image: Shelter.]

I write this story every year and, every year we have a Conservative Government, the numbers are worse than the year before.

In 2013, we had 80,000 homeless children. Now, just three years later, that number has increased by 50 – fifty – per cent.

And the Prime Minister – whoever it is, under the Tories they’re all interchangeable – says the government is reducing homelessness and puts out a line about the amount of money being given to local authorities to sort it out.

Because the Conservative Party measures success in terms of the amount of money poured into the system, not the outcomes it generates.

Fifty years since Shelter was first founded, the country is once again in the grip of a housing crisis. If there’s one thing that sums up the situation, it’s the fact that 120,000 children will be homeless this Christmas. This is the equivalent of four children at every school.

This is a 15% rise from last year. Child homelessness is increasing in the UK, and we need urgent action to prevent things getting worse. That’s why we’re campaigning for Theresa May to make ending homelessness a priority for her new government.

You may not have realised child homelessness was this high, because you won’t see children on the streets. And because they are out of sight, most people have no idea of their appalling, unsafe living conditions.

Councils have a duty to find children that have nowhere to live somewhere to sleep. However, the housing shortage forces them to place more and more homeless families into insecure and inappropriate emergency accommodation. This can be anything from cramped bed and breakfasts to hostels; places where families might have no cooking facilities. They could be squashed into a single room, and sharing a bathroom with dozens of strangers.

While children in emergency accommodation might have a roof over their heads, they are clearly without a home. They do not have the space to live their lives – to play, study, or relax. Nor a place of stability and safety where they can grow and develop.

Source: 120,000 children will be homeless this Christmas | Shelter blog

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No Comments

  1. Dez November 10, 2016 at 6:48 pm - Reply

    Surely the basic economics cannot add up for sticking your head where the sun does not shineth. The full impact of private landlords moving out of the market when they lose their tax benefits or are fed up with trying to get their money paid from whoever has to pay what proportion under the new rules will make the situation much worse. But hey getting well used to the Cons Titanic approach to politics that touch the human race.

  2. casalealex November 10, 2016 at 9:36 pm - Reply
    • Dez November 11, 2016 at 5:45 pm - Reply

      Good feed link thanks…..well worth the read with interesting insight into what happens when private money grabbers move into an area….Even with this background privatisation knowledge of failures and profiteering the Cons still plough on like lemmings…..

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