Supporting families and children

This content applies to England only.

More than one million children in Britain live in housing that is overcrowded, temporary, run-down, damp or dangerous. [1]

Some live in housing that’s making them ill. Many are missing out on a decent education. Others suffer chronic insecurity, shuffled from place to place in so-called ‘temporary accommodation’.

And yet homeless children are an invisible group – all too often ignored by national policy, sidelined by local authorities, and a low priority for front-line services.

They deserve better than this.

How bad housing wrecks children’s lives

• 8.1 million homes in England fail to meet the Government's Decent Home Standard. [2]
• One in 10 children lives in overcrowded housing. [3]
• More than 112,000 homeless children are living in temporary accommodation. [4]
• 3.8 million children in the United Kingdom live in poverty after their housing costs have been paid. [5]

Bad housing has a massive impact on children’s lives, affecting everything from their health and educational achievement, to their emotional well-being and overall life chances:

Health

The insecurity and disruption of living in temporary accommodation clearly has a damaging effect on children's health and well-being. Children living in cramped accommodation experience disturbed sleep, poor diet, higher rates of accidents and infectious disease.

• Poor housing conditions increase the risk of severe ill-health or disability by up to 25% during childhood and early adulthood. [6]
• Children in bad housing are twice as likely to suffer from poor health as other children [7]
  

Education

Children living in overcrowded conditions miss out on the space and privacy they need to play, do homework, and sleep properly. Without room to grow, many children become sick or fall behind at school. Two-thirds of respondents to a Shelter survey among homeless households living in temporary accommodation said their children had problems at school. [8] Many children living in temporary accommodation face long, exhausting journeys to school, and are so tired they can't concentrate in class.

• Moves into and between temporary accommodation can cause severe disruption to schooling, and children from homeless households are more likely to suffer from bullying, unhappiness, and stigmatisation.
• Homeless children miss on average a quarter of their schooling. [9]

Emotional well-being

Homelessness leaves parents at breaking point. Children never know where they will be moved to next and develop anxiety, depression, and behavioural problems along the way. Children living in cramped, often emergency accommodation, experience hyperactivity, aggression, bedwetting and soiling. [10] Nearly half of respondents to a Shelter survey on temporary accommodation described their children as ‘often unhappy or depressed'. [11]

• Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression are three times as common among homeless children who have lived in temporary accommodation.[12]
• Homeless children have six times as many speech and stammering problems compared with non-homeless children.[13]

Life chances

With all these obstacles pitted against them during their formative years, children growing up in bad housing often spend the rest of their lives struggling to catch up. Evidence also suggests that those who suffer bad housing run an increased risk of homelessness in adulthood.[14]

Housing issues affecting young people

As young people make the transition to adulthood it can be a difficult time, both financially and emotionally. A number of additional factors make this transition more difficult for young people in vulnerable housing situations, such as lower rates of the minimum wage and benefits, increased likelihood of unemployment and exclusion from housing registers.

Specific groups of young people at particular risk of homelessness include:

• care leavers
• runaways
• youth offenders
• black and minority ethnic (BME) groups
• asylum seekers
• refugees
• young people from rural areas.

Government action

In 1999, the Government pledged to end child poverty in England by 2020, giving all children the solid start in life they deserve. In April 2004, a ban on the long-term use of bed and breakfast hotels for homeless families with children was introduced. In the same year, the Government published its Every Child Matters strategy with the aim that, whatever their circumstances, every child should have the support they need to:

• be healthy
• stay safe
• enjoy and achieve
• make a positive contribution
• achieve economic well-being.

Shelter’s view

Shelter welcomes the steps the Government has taken to improve the life chances of children through its Every Child Matters programme and the commitment to end child poverty by 2020. Yet housing does not feature strongly in the Every Child Matters framework and we are also concerned about changes to the measurement of child poverty that will discount housing costs.

Shelter strongly believes that access to decent affordable housing must be at the heart of any strategy for improving the life chances of children and young people and reducing child poverty. This means addressing issues such issues as:

• the acute shortage of social rented housing
• overcrowding
• housing affordability
• funding for tenancy sustainment and housing advice services.

Campaign demands

Shelter’s million children campaign sought to end child homelessness. We’ve made real progress, from helping to persuade the Chancellor to prioritise spending on housing, to helping reduce the use of temporary accommodation by 2010.

To fully achieve our goal we need the right framework of policies and laws in place, including:

• a new responsibility for local authorities to assess, understand and meet the needs of children living in temporary accommodation
• the recognition of the specific needs of homeless children in the Government’s ambitious Every Child Matters programme
• better co-ordination between housing departments and children’s services
• a trained member of staff in every Children Centre who can advise and help homeless families
• proper consideration of children's needs by local authorities before evicting families for anti-social behaviour
• support for families whose homelessness applications are turned down to enable them to find and keep a home in the private rented sector
• Government guidelines to ensure that housing and social services work together to meet the needs of homeless 16 and 17 year olds
• a new duty on local authorities to avoid damaging disruption to children’s schooling when placing families in temporary accommodation
• funding for local authorities to create peer education and other support services to help prevent and alleviate child homelessness.

[1] Rice B, Against the Odds, Shelter, 2006.

[2] English House Condition Survey 2006 Headline Report, CLG, 2007.

[3] Source: Communities and Local Government, formerly Office of Deputy Prime Minister.

[4] Statutory Homelessness Statistics, CLG, March 2008.

[5] Households Below Average Income - an analysis of the income distribution 1994/5 - 2005/6, Department for Work and Pensions, 2007

[6] Harker, L., Chance of a lifetime: the impact of bad housing on children's lives, Shelter, London, 2006.

[7] Rice B, Against the Odds, Shelter, 2006 

[8] Mitchell, F., et al., Living in limbo: survey of homeless households living in temporary accommodation, Shelter, London, 2004.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Housing and Health in London: a review by the Health of Londoners Project.

[11] Mitchell, F., et al., Living in limbo: survey of homeless households living in temporary accommodation, Shelter, London, 2004.

[12] British Medical Association, Housing and Health, Building for the Future, 2003.

[13] Harker L, Chance of a lifetime: the impact of bad housing on children's lives, Shelter, 2006.

[14] Ibid.