Z2K’s specialist housing casework team spends a lot of time trying to stop people becoming homeless in the first place. Our senior caseworker told me yesterday that getting someone housed is the biggest single difference you can make in supporting them to get their life back on track.
But in London, all roads lead back to the same problem. There isn’t enough affordable housing available. Not even close.
According to the annual rough sleeping count in March of this year, close to 13,000 people are street homeless in London – an increase of 60% in the last decade. But this is the just the tip of the homelessness iceberg.
Trust for London estimates that one in every 50 Londoners is currently living in temporary accommodation – while this might mean they aren’t sleeping rough, legally they are still considered homeless. My guess is the focus on ending rough sleeping could push that number northwards.
Single men and women of all ages who are homeless are being turned away by local authorities, struggling even to get their situation assessed. We are currently working with a young woman still in her teens who can’t get into temporary accommodation even though she became homeless because she fled domestic violence. Many are told to fill out forms online regardless of their access to data or technology, language gap, ability or need. Z2K helps many struggling with these exact barriers, to navigate complex online forms and portals.
If you are able to get into temporary accommodation, we know many of our clients don’t feel safe living there. It might be damp, mouldy, in a state of disrepair, or a long way from other services they need to access. A client said recently the accommodation they were offered was so bad they wouldn’t let a dog sleep in it. Too many have no cooking or laundry facilities, no wi-fi, nowhere safe to store belongings, no one to contact to ask for repairs. Temporary rarely means temporary – in London many people find themselves still living in limbo five years later with no suitable and affordable accommodation to move on to.
People facing homelessness must be treated with humanity and care as they navigate the complex systems and support available. While cash-strapped London boroughs might be doing what they can with limited resources, it’s nowhere near enough.
I sincerely hope the government achieves its goal of getting everyone in for winter. But improvements to the care and support offered to people when they need help while accelerating the supply of affordable homes across the UK will be the real tests of Andy Burnham’s commitment to addressing homelessness for good.
