Highest number of older people homeless in a decade
Posted 27 Jun 2018
New government figures on homelessness released today show:
In the last year, 2,520 people aged 60 and over were accepted as homeless – a staggering rise of 40% in the last five years, and the highest number for over a decade.
There are 38,390 single parent families who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation – a rise of 54% in the last five years.
Single parent families account for 63% of all homeless families living in temporary accommodation, despite making up just 23% of all families in England - showing they are disproportionately affected by homelessness.
'An unforgiving combination of expensive rents and welfare cuts is forcing families out of homes and into temporary accommodation and ruining retirement for older people.
Polly Neate, CEO of Shelter, said: 'It’s clear that our country is in the firm grip of a housing crisis, with everyone from young children and their families through to older people bearing the brunt.
'If we want to protect more people from the ravages of homelessness, the government must come up with a bold new plan for social housing and in the short term, ensure housing benefit covers the actual cost of rents.'
Notes to editors:
Anyone who is worried about losing their home can get free and independent, expert advice from Shelter at www.shelter.org.uk/advice or by calling the helpline on 0808 800 4444.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) statistics were released for the three months from January 2018 to March 2018. They are available here.
The last twelve months of data is from April 2017 to March 2018. We compared this to data from April 2012 to March 2013.
The number of people aged 60 and over accepted as homeless by their local council is from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Live homelessness table 781. This is the highest it has been since 2005/06.
The number of families and single parent families in temporary accommodation is from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Live table 782 and 775_England. In the last year the number of families has increased by 0.3% and the number of single parents has increased by 4%.
The number of families in temporary accommodation is of March 2018. We compared this to data from March 2013 and March 2017.
The percentage of families that are single parent families in England is calculated using the English Housing Survey 2016-17, Annex Table 1.3. We define families as households with at least one dependent child. The data is available here.