A household became homeless every 3 minutes during the last lockdown

The government has today released new figures on homelessness in England for the period January to March 2021 – during the last national lockdown. They show:

• Despite the eviction ban being in place, 68,250 new households approached their local council and were found to be homeless or at risk of homelessness. 

• During the national lockdown, a household became homeless every three minutes.

• 95,450 households were living in temporary accommodation (TA), of whom 59,120 were families. That means 119,830 children were living in TA at the end of March.

• One in five (18%) homeless households were placed into emergency B&Bs and hostels, where living conditions are notoriously poor and cramped, and need to move onto a permanent and secure home.

• The three most common triggers of homelessness during the period were: households no longer being able to stay with families and friends (32%), the loss of a private tenancy (13%) and domestic abuse (12%).

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “It is a scary sign of the times that even the eviction ban couldn’t stop thousands of families becoming homeless in early 2021. Now the ban has lifted far more people could be faced with the brutal reality of homelessness.

“The bottom line is that there aren’t enough social homes, which has created a massive bottleneck, trapping huge numbers of people in crummy temporary accommodation. How can anyone call a rat-infested room no bigger than a prison cell, home?

“If the country is to stand a chance of recovering from the pandemic, the government must urgently invest in a new generation of quality social housing. Last year we built fewer than 7,000 new social homes. We can and must do better.”

Anyone who is facing homelessness can get free and expert advice from Shelter by visiting www.shelter.org.uk/get_help or by calling our emergency helpline on 0808 800 4444.

ENDS