Green Book - Shelter · The Green Book Report Foreword Des Wilson Co- Founder and first Director of...

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Green Book 50 Years On

The reality of homelessness for families today

The Green Book: 50 years on

Contents

Foreword .......................................................................................... 2

Introduction ..................................................................................... 5

Research methods .......................................................................... 7

Homelessness then and now: how has this changed over the last five decades? ............................................. 10

Section one: What’s the reality of homelessness in 2016?........................................................................................... 16

Recorded homelessness ............................................................... 17

Hidden homelessness .................................................................... 21

Rate of households becoming homeless ....................................... 23

What does it mean to be homeless as a family? ............................ 25

Conclusion to section one .............................................................. 32

Section two: What causes homelessness? ................. 35

What causes homelessness in 2016? ............................................ 36

Where are people becoming homeless and who is affected? ....... 37

Learning from experience: what happens to cause someone to become homeless? ........................................................................ 50

What is causing homelessness to rise? ......................................... 73

Conclusion to section two .............................................................. 82

Conclusion: Our housing crisis is causing homelessness, and we need radical action to address this ..............................................................................84Endnotes ........................................................................................ 89

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The Green Book Report

Foreword

Des Wilson Co- Founder and first

Director of Shelter (1966-71)

While the country was celebrating winning the World Cup, I

spent the summer of 1966 on a more sobering mission, exploring

the slums of our major cities. There I discovered another less

happy country...thousands and thousands of families packed

into crumbling housing, sometimes thirty or more sharing one

cold water tap and one toilet, damp stripping the wallpaper

from the walls and entrenching itself in the clothing and bedding

of hovels infested with mice and rats. There I looked into the

desperate and exhausted faces of young mothers trying to keep

their families together in one overcrowded and unhealthy room –

and kids, already world-weary, with no space to play, bedevilled

by ill-health or worse, driven to delinquency, as their lives were

wrecked by conditions that made it impossible for them to thrive.

What I was uncovering was the human face of shocking

official statistics; notably that three million families were living in

slums, near slums or grossly overcrowded conditions, and 1.4

million occupied houses were unfit for human habitation.

In a report to my co-founders that became known as ‘The

Green Book’, I exposed a national scandal and developed the

plan for Shelter.

We would, I wrote, declare ‘a national emergency’; injecting

life into the statistics with the stories and pictures of those I had

met. We would be more than just a charity – not just raising funds

to help the homeless, but campaigning too, pounding away at the

politicians and public opinion about the need for more resources

for housing.

Shelter was launched on December 1 1966, a couple of

weeks after, coincidentally, the BBC screened ‘Cathy Come

Home’. It quickly became the new face of charity, compassionate

but angry, capturing both the empathy and the imagination of the

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public – especially the young. In a few years much was achieved.

By the time I retired from Shelter in 1971, I had every reason to

believe we had built the foundations for a better-housed country.

Who would have believed that fifty years later – in 2016 –

the words ‘national emergency’ would apply once more?

Once more we face a desperate need for affordable homes.

Families are living in overcrowded and terrible conditions. Renters

are unable to cover their costs and living in fear of eviction. The

young have virtually no prospect of having a home of their own.

With this follow-up to ‘The Green Book’, combining, as it

does, human stories with devastating statistics, Shelter again

exposes the startling reality of bad housing and homelessness

in this country.

Once more it identifies a national emergency.

Once more it calls for emphatic action.

It would be pleasing if Shelter were able to take time to

celebrate its 50th year, but, as this report shows, it is too aware

of what still has to be done. I hope the country will respond to

its urgent rallying call with the same combination of anger and

compassion with which it supported our work all those years ago.

Campbell Robb Chief Executive of Shelter

(2010-2016)

England faces a housing crisis. Millions of people live in sub-

standard housing. Homelessness is rising. Children’s educational

chances are being denied by bad housing, frequent moves and

sharing beds with their parents and siblings. Thousands of

families live in just one room, and children go to bed listening

to the sounds of strangers fighting through the walls. And the

number of people forced to sleep on the streets is surging.

This is the reality of England in 2016. But this is not the

first time we have faced these challenges. Some of the living

conditions seen today will be familiar to families from 1966.

That was the year that Shelter was founded, a time when

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the housing crisis was so great it inspired

a group of people to launch a national

campaign for the homeless. To support

this, Shelter’s founder Des Wilson

produced a ground-breaking report to

show the true picture of homelessness

facing families in Great Britain. Due to

its cover it was known simply as ‘The

Green Book’.

In 2016, our 50th anniversary, at a

point when Shelter’s founders hoped the work would be done,

we have re-visited the questions this report addressed.

Across the last five decades, government and the third

sector have managed to make great strides in addressing bad

housing and homeless. Shelter’s early campaigns led directly to

the introduction of legislative protection for homeless households

in 1977. This has meant that now in 2016 we have protections

in place that are designed to ensure that very vulnerable people,

like children, will not be left on the streets.

England’s homelessness legislation is world-leading in

many respects. But the help it provides is limited. For example,

half of households who apply for help through it, including

families with children, fall through its protections at the first

hurdle. What’s more, its safeguards intentionally do not currently

extend to many single homeless people.

This legislation could be about to change significantly. The

government and campaigners have backed proposals to place a

greater emphasis on supporting single people and homelessness

prevention – a laudable goal, albeit a challenging one.

To realise this ambition, new policy needs to reflect

an understanding of the extent of homelessness today and

its causes.

This report provides timely, compelling evidence of the

steps we need to take to end homelessness before another fifty

years has passed.

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Introduction

In 1966, Shelter’s founder Des Wilson published a ground breaking report to

show the true picture of homelessness among families in Great Britain and

support Shelter’s launch in 1966. Due to its cover it was known simply as

‘The Green Book’. In 2016 – our 50th anniversary – we re-visit this question.

While the situation has improved greatly since 1966, our research has found

that previous reductions in homelessness and improvements to people’s

housing are now being reversed.

It is now well understood that we have a shortage of affordable homes

which is denying millions their dream of owning their own home, and leading

to crippling rent increases in some parts of the country. Four in ten households

live in a home that doesn’t meet the public’s standard of what constitutes an

acceptable home. This research reveals how this shortage is also pushing

hundreds of thousands of people off the bottom of the housing ladder and

into homelessness.

Thankfully families with children at risk of homelessness have the

protection of world-class legislation that Shelter and others have fought hard

over the years to introduce and protect. This, combined with the efforts of

local councils to help people in need, protects many families from street

homelessness or – as in 1966 – having to apply to social services for support.

There is much to build on in our system and many opportunities

for further improvement. A renewed focus on homelessness legislation

means that this is an important time to look at what we’ve learnt

over the past 50 years, the extent of homelessness today, why

homelessness is rising, and what needs to be done to address it. We

hope that this report provides a valuable contribution to current understanding

of homelessness in England today.

The report

In the first section of the report, we set out the research we have undertaken,

how homelessness has changed over the last 50 years, and the current policy

response to homelessness in England.

We then set out the extent of homelessness in England today and

what this means for people in this situation. This includes looking at the

places homeless families are living in and the experience of being homeless.

Because the original Green Book focused on the experience of families with

children, we have also focused our attention on this group.

The report goes on to then explore what is causing homelessness by

looking at the types of households made homeless, and the places where

homelessness is high. It seeks to understand the actual events in people’s

lives that cause them to be homeless, what is being done to prevent this in

the first place, and the challenges faced. We then look at why more people


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are now becoming homeless, by looking at levels of homelessness in the

context of other long term and short term trends and policy changes.


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Research methods

The original ‘Green Book’

Des Wilson’s report ‘A report on homelessness in Britain and the need for

‘Shelter’’ was produced 50 years ago. In the summer of 1966, Des Wilson

carried out research throughout England and Scotland ‘to discover the extent

of the British housing problem with particular reference to homelessness and

overcrowding’, and ‘to establish the most effective role that a new national

organisation could play… in the struggle to rid Britain of that problem.’

Des travelled the country to document the extent of homelessness at

the time, how it affected people’s lives, and to uncover the reasons behind

this. His finished report combines the best available data with some of

the intricacies of people’s lived experience of bad housing. He carried out

national and local analysis on how difficult it is for families to afford any

suitable housing, what type of housing they could afford, and how recent

changes have impacted this.

There are many differences between now and the Sixties. Thankfully the

post war slums have been consigned to history, and there are much stronger

protections in place for families facing homelessness. But there are also

worrying similarities. We know that thousands of families struggle to cover

their housing costs, and that if housing costs rise further, incomes (including

earnings and benefits) may not respond adequately to keep people in their

homes. Homelessness (measured by rough sleeper counts, acceptances

by local authorities, and numbers of households living in temporary

accommodation) is rising too. And some groups have benefitted far less from

increased legislative protection, notably single people without children.

Our approach

Our investigation revisits the issues set out in the original study. We aim to

build a broad picture of what is happening in England, why it is happening,

and how it compares to the past. We explore what drives recent trends, the

difficulties local areas face, and how people experience homelessness.

The extent and impact of homelessness

■■ What is the extent of homelessness?

■■ What is the impact of homelessness on people?

■■ The causes of homelessness

■■ Why do people become homeless?

■■ What explains recent homelessness trends?

■■ What explains recent homelessness trends?

We answered these questions through a mixed methods research study.


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Analysis of homelessness statistics

This research uses the legal definition of homelessness. This can be

summarised as people having no accommodation available to themselves

(and those who normally live with them) to legally occupy. People are also

defined as homeless if their current living conditions are so harmful (because

of hazards or severe overcrowding) that it would be unreasonable for them to

continue to occupy their current accommodation.

Homelessness is a hidden issue and is poorly captured in large

surveys or datasets. Therefore to get a reasonably accurate picture of

what is happening, we must use a range of different data, particularly from

administrative sources.

We started our investigation with the Department for Communities

and Local Government (DCLG) homelessness statistics. These are quarterly

reports filled out by local authorities, and sent to central government,

recording the number of ‘households accepted as homeless and in priority

need’ in a given local authority in a given quarter.

These statistics have never given a full picture of the number of people

who are homeless. They miss people who do not qualify for assistance – a

major issue given that support has always been tightly rationed. They also

miss families judged to be homeless due to their own actions, households

who are not eligible for help, people who have not approached the council, or

those who have been helped by the council through other avenues. It can also

be hard to interpret these statistics. For example, they may tell us that some

people in an area became homeless due to ‘relationship breakdown’ but not

how this led to people becoming homeless, or what can be done about it.

Similarly, looking at the statistics in isolation, without understanding the wider

factors, means that we are unable to draw meaningful conclusions about what

we are seeing and what could explain trends1.

However, the statistics do give us a full data series that goes back to

the 1970s, allowing us to broadly track how homelessness has changed

over time. The process of gathering this data also operates as a ‘census’

questionnaire ensuring that the same information is collected from every

household found to be homeless and in priority need. Analysing this data

allows us to see trends of where and to whom homelessness is occurring,

why homeless households lost their last home, and how this has changed

over time.

Our study focuses on families with children. Due to issues with data

availability and quality, we have conducted most of our analysis using data

on households found to be ‘statutory homeless’, rather than families.


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Triangulation with other data sources

To draw a broad but deep picture of homelessness in England, we took these

statistics as our starting point, and explored them further alongside other

research evidence2. Individual research methods are highlighted throughout.

Additional data collection and analysis undertaken as part of this study

include:

■■ A literature review of academic, government, Shelter, and other

voluntary sector reports.

■■ Analysis of administrative datasets on homelessness, repossession

activity, and benefit levels.

■■ A freedom of information request to local authorities to request data

on homeless families supported by social services departments.

■■ Semi-structured interviews with fifty homeless families to collect

case histories, and their perspectives on why they became

homeless and how this affected their lives . The sample is not

representative of all homeless families, and the analysis of this

information was qualitative. However, we designed a segmented

sample and monitored its formation to check that the sample

mapped the breakdown in the statutory homelessness figures. This

allowed us to explore a range of homelessness issues.

■■ Semi-structured interviews with twenty council and voluntary sector

stakeholders in three areas of England.

■■ A survey with one hundred Shelter frontline workers.

■■ Secondary analysis of the Family Resources Survey to explore the

types of households that may be vulnerable to homelessness in

different areas.

■■ A mystery shopping exercise to see what housing was available in

areas experiencing different levels of homelessness.

■■ An online survey of more than 8,000 people in England


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Homelessness then and now: how has this changed over the last five decades?

Homelessness through the decades

The sixties were a time of rising prosperity and

social change. Housing conditions were no

exception. Slums were cleared and modern

conditions rolled out. Social housing was built,

home ownership continued to increase, central

heating ceased to be a rarity, and overcrowding

finally fell.

But progress was slow and the post-war

housing boom did not reach everyone. A large

number of households continued to experience

chronically bad housing. Three million families lived

in grossly overcrowded conditions or in homes

that were unfit for human habitation. Exploitative

landlords like Peter Rachman preyed on those with

no alternatives.

Official responses could often be limited,

with families frequently split up, and emergency

housing rationed as a last resort. Newly built social

housing was not necessarily allocated to homeless

families, or else was too expensive for those on the

lowest incomes.

Section one What’s the reality of homelessness in 2016?

1960

s


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By the beginning of the seventies half of the population owned their own

home. Many people benefitted from a house price boom. Social housing

building remained high, although the imperative to replace the war time slums

eased, and targets were scaled down.

Others were hit by a newly volatile housing market and uncertain

economic outlook. Homelessness still went largely undocumented, but

councils reported growing demand for emergency help.

Growing pressure from campaigners and concern by government led to

the creation of the first proper homelessness safety net in 1977. The Housing

(Homeless Persons) Act placed a legal duty on councils to house some

homeless households. Almost all these homeless households were rehoused

into council housing stock.

The 1980s began with the highest ever proportion of the

population living in social housing. But the ‘Right to Buy’ introduced at the

start of the decade cemented owner occupation as the majority tenure. By

1987, more than a million council houses in Britain had been sold, enabling

millions of people to live in a home they owned.

However, with not enough council stock being replaced at the time

meant that rented housing became harder to find. In an attempt to boost the

supply of rented homes, the private rented sector was deregulated through

the 1988 Housing Act.

Homelessness grew steadily during the decade. As councils struggled to

find suitable temporary accommodation for the growing numbers of homeless

households, the use of cheap bed & breakfast (B&B) accommodation grew

substantially, especially in London.

The decade also saw the visible growth of rough sleeping, particularly

amongst single people not helped by the 1977 Act.

1970

s

1980

s


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Homeownership continued to rise in this decade. However, many homeowners

were hit by soaring interest rates and negative equity in the economic

downturn of the early 1990s. Mortgage repossessions rocketed in response.

Aside from some post-recession stimulus, the stock of genuinely

affordable homes continued to decrease.

Homelessness increased steadily towards the end of the decade.

Rough sleeping remained a visible problem. This led to a range of government

responses. The Housing Act 1996 introduced limits on the length of time that

homeless households could be supported in temporary accommodation.

The Rough Sleeper Initiative, and later the Social Exclusion taskforce, were

introduced to address chronic homelessness issues.

House prices soared throughout the 2000s, reaching a peak in 2007.

Homeownership began to fall in response, and the buy-to-let boom helped

grow the private rented sector.

The number of households becoming homeless and living in temporary

accommodation grew throughout the first part of the decade. Again this

prompted legislative and policy change. The Homelessness Act 2002

extended rehousing rights for a broader group of homeless people and

promoted new approaches to tackling homelessness. Councils embraced

the new ‘Housing Options’ model to reduce homelessness. This successfully

reduced the numbers officially found homeless, although lots of people

continued to approach the council to receive help in avoiding homelessness.

The Global Financial Crash of 2007/8 did not spark the level of

repossessions seen in the 1990s, with government, banks, and lenders acting

quickly to prevent homeowners facing repossession. Instead, low income

renters bore the brunt of the downturn, with homelessness caused by the

ending of a private rented tenancy becoming the leading reason for homeless

households losing their last settled home.

1990

s

2000

s


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Homelessness now: Current Policy Environment

We have managed to make great strides in addressing bad housing and

homelessness across the last five decades. In 2016 we have a safety net that

is designed to ensure that very vulnerable people, like children, will not be left

on our streets. This ‘safety net’ is comprised of legal duties, cash benefits,

and help to secure an alternative home.

The homelessness safety net

The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act still underpins the legal rights owed

by local authorities to certain people who are homeless, or threatened with

homelessness. Local authorities assess people presenting as homeless

against five main criteria:

1. Are they homeless, or likely to be made homeless in the next 28 days?

2. Are they eligible for assistance in England?

3. Are they in ‘priority need’?

4. Are they intentionally homeless?

5. Do they have a local connection? If not, which local authority should

they be referred to?

When the very first homelessness legislation was debated in 1977, Parliament

decided that it would be inappropriate for local authorities to rehouse everyone

who came to them for assistance. They decided that some people should

rehouse themselves, and that people would only be prioritised if they were

more vulnerable to the impacts of homelessness. This formed the basis for

the ‘priority need’ categories which ration rehousing.

Priority need currently applies to pregnant women, families with children,

young people aged 16-17 years, care leavers up to the age of 21, and people

who have been made homeless due to an emergency (such as a flood). Others

are only considered to have a priority need if they are vulnerable as a result

of being an older person, having a physical or learning disability or mental

health problems, having to escape violence or harassment, having been in

care, or having been in the armed forces or a young offenders’ institute or

prison.

As a result of priority need some people, notably single people without

children who are unable to demonstrate a particular vulnerability, are not

entitled to rehousing, and this explains their greater risk of sleeping rough.


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Rehousing

If a person applying for assistance meets the tests set out above, the local

authority has a legal duty to re-house them into settled accommodation. This

is usually a social rented home but can be a suitable 12 month tenancy offered

by a private landlord. Where the local housing authorities cannot immediately

help homeless families into a settled home, they have to provide temporary

accommodation. This could be in the form of a homeless B&B or hostel, or

self-contained accommodation leased from a private landlord and let and

managed by the local authority, or a housing association.

Other assistance to prevent homelessness

Not all homeless people are rehoused under the terms of the legislation. Local

housing authorities are encouraged by Government to offer housing options

to prevent a household becoming statutorily homelessness. Options offered

vary from assistance to remain in the current home (such as family mediation

and negotiation with their landlord to prevent an eviction), to help with finding

alternative accommodation (such as assistance with a tenancy deposit).

Housing benefit also provides a de facto homelessness prevention

tool, by helping low income households to access and pay for rented

accommodation.

Another important means of homelessness prevention is support for

those who would otherwise struggle to maintain a tenancy. This could be

help to claim benefits, work with a landlord to arrange repairs, or to improve

budgeting skills. However, recent cuts to local authority funding mean that

this sort of support is becoming less available.

Although there is no statutory protection available to non-priority need

rough sleepers, the Government provides funding to voluntary organisations

to assist them. For example, in London, the ‘No Second Night Out’ scheme

aims to ensure that those who find themselves sleeping rough in central

London for the first time need not spend a second night on the streets.


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The safety net in operation

Although England’s homelessness legislation is world-leading in many respects,

the help it provides is limited. Half of households who apply for help, including

families with children, fall through its protections at the first hurdle. This is

mainly because they fail one of the main tests for assistance, for example they

cannot prove a priority need. Other people and families fail to qualify for help

because they are judged to be homeless, but intentionally so.

Priority need assessments are fraught with legal challenges, particularly

for single people attempting to demonstrate their vulnerability. Little statutory

assistance is available to these households. Sometimes the local authority

will help with finding private rented accommodation. In other cases, single

people may be assisted by charities operating homeless hostels or private

rental access schemes, or they may be able to stay with family or friends.

However, they can be at real risk of having to resort to rough sleeping.

Intentionality decisions can also be an issue. A household can be found

to be ‘intentionally homeless’ for a range of reasons. This could mean they

left suitable accommodation without good reasons. Often it is interpreted as

meaning that the household lost their home due to their own actions – for

example failing to pay rent or anti-social behaviour.

A further safety net exists to catch families with children who are

refused assistance due to perceived intentionality. The Children Acts

1989 and 2004 require authorities to ‘safeguard and promote’ the welfare

of all children in their area. This can include providing accommodation

and basic subsistence to families with children to ensure they don’t face

destitution. However, we know that poor joint working between local

housing authorities and social services departments can lead to homeless

families in this situation falling through the net. And while the intent behind

the system is well-meant, it means that homeless families often have the

threat hanging over them of their children being taken into care. At Shelter,

we regularly see families who are threatened with this on the basis of their

housing situation. Sadly this has been the case ever since Shelter was first

established.

The future

Our homelessness legislation could be about to change significantly. The

Government and campaigners have backed proposals to require local

authorities to offer some help to all homeless households in England. This

follows new approaches pioneered in Scotland, which has abolished priority

need, and Wales, which has moved to a priority-need blind prevention model.

The proposals aim to place a greater emphasis on homelessness prevention

– a laudable goal, albeit a challenging one in a climate of declining social

housing, rising rents, and cuts to housing benefit. To make this work, policy

needs to reflect an understanding of the extent of homelessness today and

its causes, to which we now turn.


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Section oneWhat’s the reality of homelessness in 2016?


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When Shelter was founded in the 1960s, we did

not know the true extent of homelessness.

While things have moved on substantially,

building a true picture of the extent of homelessness

in England today is still enormously challenging.

Despite this, we have largely managed to do

this below by using combined analysis of data

collected by councils, Shelter, and other voluntary

sector agencies.

Beyond the statistics are thousands of

people trying to cope without a home, one of the

fundamental pillars of family life. We spoke to

families in a range of accommodation to understand

what kinds of places some families were staying in.

Recorded homelessness

A quarter of a million people are known to be

homeless in England today. Most of these people

have been found to be homeless by their council,

and are living in temporary accommodation while

they look for a settled home. In addition, over

35,000 single people live in homelessness hostels,

and just over 3,500 people are known to sleep

rough on a given night.

Our research also uncovered thousands more

families who are homeless but accommodated

by social services. These families are currently

completely missing from the homelessness

statistics and the true number of them is likely

to be much larger. Further, over forty authorities

replied to our request for information by saying that

they had no record of the total number of families

they were currently supporting. Not only is there

no accessible record of these families nationally –

often there is no record of them locally.

Households caught by the safety net, but still homeless

230,010 people are currently homeless

and living in temporary accommodation in

England4

Homeless families slipping through the net

At least 1,259 families5 (equivalent

to around four thousand people) are

currently homeless and living in temporary

accommodation provided by social

services. They are here having fallen foul

of the eligibility or intentionality tests of the

homelessness safety net.

Homeless accommodation

19,666 other single people live in hostels

for the homeless run by a charity or support

agency6.

Rough sleeping

3,569 people sleep rough on a given night.7


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What is it like to be homeless as a family in 2016?

Living in temporary accommodation

Homeless families housed by the council (whether by the housing department,

or social services) live in temporary accommodation. This can comprise

bedsits, flats, houses, and hotels. The majority of homeless families live in

‘contained’ accommodation.

However, as the number of people affected by homelessness rises, the

number of families living in unsuitable shared accommodation (like B&Bs and

hostels) is also growing.

Life in ‘shared’ accommodation

In total, 7,000 families (one in eight homeless families) currently live in hostel or B&B accommodation.8

This is more than twice as many as just five years ago. There are particular challenges from living in

shared accommodation. Some places have strict rules limiting people eating in their room, having

visitors, or staying away. One family were told they could not bring food into the accommodation at

all. Some families were locked out of their room during the day for cleaning or other management

reasons. Families shared stories about other people being able to come and go from their room,

even though this was meant to be their only private space:

‘One of the twins was coming out of the shower the other day and a bloke walked in.

He said ‘Oh they’ve given me a key for this room’.’

There are strict rules governing how long families can be kept in these places. However, even these

more extreme examples were often not a brief fix. Half of families we spoke to who were living in a

place with shared facilities had been living there for over six months.

We spoke to families in a range of accommodation. In some cases, families

were settled in a home that met their needs for the time being.

Other experiences were hard to believe. Overall, the standard of housing

in England is much better now than in the 1960s. But we were shocked to

uncover that some of the conditions that families are living in today, mirror

some of the conditions we found fifty years ago.


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One family was sharing a four bedroom terraced house with five other

families. Others shared a large building with fifty others. Three families were

living for months in well-known chain hotels. Some families were living in

extreme overcrowding. In one case a family of two parents, two primary-

school-age children, two teenagers, and a baby were sharing a space twelve

feet by seven feet with two double beds and just enough space for the door

to open. The beds were used for sleeping, but also to store possessions. On

dry nights, the 18-year-old son had started sleeping outside on a nearby flat

roof to give the other family members more space.

Above is an architects drawing showing the way that two of the families we visited were living. On the left a family were in a room measuring 12 feet by 8 feet. They had very little space to store possessions, let alone for children to play.

On the right, a mother and her son shared a bed in a basement room with no natural light. One night the room was flooded from above, damaging their possessions.

“It’s so cramped, it’s so humid. We’re basically all on top of each other. I can’t buy butter because it melts. I can’t get milk because it curdles during the day. I have nothing. I’ve tried to put cold water in the sink but, because it’s like 32 degrees in here, it [milk] curdles straight away.’


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Most accommodation was in poor condition. Examples of disrepair included

dirty or broken mattresses and beds, broken doors with locks missing,

evidence of human and animal excrement, sparking electrical sockets, mould,

and windows that wouldn’t close. Five families mentioned animal infestations

including cockroaches, mice and, in one case, rats. Breaches of health

and safety requirements included broken fire alarms and fire extinguishers.

One woman had no running water for a week. This coincided with her child

coming home from hospital after an operation. She had to buy bottled water

to clean his wounds. Families living in shared accommodation worried about

the standards of communal spaces. As one father shared:

“There have been used needles found in the toilets. You have little toddlers in here and they are running about, in a slight moment they might run and pick something up.

There were striking similarities between accommodation classed as ‘shared’

(and in theory subject to restrictions on its use) and accommodation classed

as ‘self-contained’. For example, half of the families we spoke to in ‘contained’

accommodation lived in just one room. Two thirds of the parents had to share

beds with their children. Life was generally easier to manage than in shared

accommodation. But having kitchens and bathrooms all together in a small

space could made it difficult to keep children safe. As one man explained:

“It’s a studio but the bathroom is more of a cupboard and there’s only room for one double bed so the four of us sleep there…. If I cook in here, we can’t stay in here… the whole place is boiling. When I’m cooking, I just wait for them (children) to start coughing, and then take them outside. So I literally stop cooking for a while then I will just wait till the coughing calms down.

As we revealed, at least 1,200 additional families are homeless and living in

accommodation provided by their council than the homelessness statistics

note. This is because they have been refused homelessness assistance and

are being accommodated by social services. There are fewer restrictions on

the types of accommodation that can be provided to these families. As a

result, previous studies have highlighted that this accommodation can be

of very poor quality9. This was also the case with the accommodation we

saw. These families are in a particularly difficult situation. They have already

fallen through the homelessness safety net and, as we found, the existence

of these families is often very poorly recorded at a local and national level.


22


Hidden homelessness

Alongside people who are statutorily homeless

there is likely to be a much larger group of

people who are ‘hidden homeless’. This includes

people sleeping rough, but hidden from rough

sleeper counts by staying in vehicles, abandoned

buildings10, and it includes families with children

as well as single people.

Local authorities may carry out rough

sleeping counts. These are supposed to provide

an assessment of street homelessness but may

fail to count people sleeping in more hidden areas,

particularly women.

Some hidden homeless people ‘sofa surf’

with friends or family. It is very difficult to estimate

how many people are doing this. But available

evidence puts this in the tens of thousands12.

Families might be sofa surfing for a range

of reasons. One reason could be that they were

deemed to be ineligible for support. Another could

be they were offered a place to stay but didn’t

accept it, as they felt it was unsuitable (e.g. the

placement would require a move far away from

their last home area).

Research by Justlife and IPPR identified

a group of single homeless households living

in ‘unsupported temporary accommodation’

including B&Bs, guesthouses and HMOs13 –

what they describe as ‘non-statutory temporary

accommodation’. There are no current accurate

estimates of the number of people living in this way.

But in 2004 researchers at the New Policy Institute

put the number of people claiming housing benefit

in bed and breakfast accommodation at around

50,000 households14, around ten times the number

recorded in the homeless statistics at the time15.

Following the closure of specialist homelessness

hostels over the last five years, an increasing

number of people may be living this way.

Last year, Shelter helped 523 families with

children who were sleeping rough at the

time they came to us for help. One third of

Shelter frontline workers surveyed say they

encounter a family with children forced to

sleep outside (for example in a park or a

tent) at least once a month through their

work. A similar proportion see families

forced to sleep in a car. Some encounter

this every day.

Last year, Shelter helped 2368 families with

children who were sofa surfing with friends

or family at the time they came to us for help.

More than two-thirds of Shelter staff say

that at least once a month they encounter a

family who has slept on the sofa of friends

or family rather than accept an offer of

accommodation from the council they

deem to be unsuitable.


23


What is it like to be homeless as a family in 2016? Hidden homelessness

We spoke to many families who were either in, or had been in, these situations.

People sofa surfing with friends said they felt the strain of living in someone

else’s space. They also faced the constant worry of their situation worsening

as they were slowly burning through the favours they could call on. Families

in this situation had even less control over their situation. Most tried to stay

out of the way of the people they were living with, staying out of the house

during the day, and spending money and time to take on extra housework or

cooking duties.

Families that were sofa surfing had even less space to store

possessions. Some stored possessions in the home of one set of friends and

stayed with others. This made it hard to stay organised, and also to keep

children in a routine.

“We have to wait for everyone to go to sleep – because we’re in the living room and the light wakes him up…I spend a lot of time trying not to upset anyone. Sometimes he wets the bed, and I have to make sure it’s all clean before they get up. It’s stressful.

Four of the families we spoke to had spent at least one night outside. In two

cases this was after being told by the council they wouldn’t qualify for help.

Families stayed in cars or walked around for a night. One sought help from

the police who accommodated them in their waiting room before taking them

back to the council the following day.

“The day that I was evicted and then the council didn’t choose to accommodate us we stayed there to the night, nine o’clock. And then the security man told me, told us, ‘I need to close the door. And if you don’t leave we’re going to call the police to come in’. So they call police and when the police came in, they said, ‘What? What are they doing? Why do you leave children like this on the street?


24


Growth in homelessness

Thousands more people experience homelessness in a given year

In addition to the thousands of people homeless on a given night, thousands

more people experience becoming homeless each year. The government’s

latest Poverty and Social Exclusion survey (2012) found that nine percent

of adults in England have experienced homelessness at some point in their

lives.

In the last twelve months alone, councils helped people who have lost their home and need assistance

to find a new one more than 150,000 times.16 This included 59,000 households who were found to be

homeless and in priority need17.

Across 2015, councils identified 5,077 people in London alone who were sleeping rough for the first time18.

Homelessness is rising

However we measure it, homelessness is rising. The numbers of households

living in temporary accommodation and the numbers of people found

sleeping rough on a given night have risen for the last five years. The number

of households coming to their council and being found to be homeless and

in priority need is over a quarter higher than five years ago. The number of

times local authorities helped people into accommodation outside of this is

also higher19.

Even more shocking is that this rise in the number of people becoming

homeless each year since 2009 has come following six years when the level

of homelessness appeared to drop sharply. The sharp upwards turn that the

homelessness statistics have made after 2009 is a striking trend.

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

Num

ber

of p

eopl

e

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Homeless and in priority need

2012 2013 2014 2015


25


Thousands more could be on the edge

Our research shows that millions of people worry that they could themselves

be facing homelessness in the next year.

One in fourteen parents think they will become homeless in the next 12 months20.

And millions of individual people and families could be vulnerable to a bump

in the road.

One in five parents feel that they wouldn’t be able to cover their housing costs for any length of time if

they lost their job. One in four feel that they wouldn’t be able to afford their housing costs for any length

of time if their relationship broke down21.


26


What does it mean to be homeless as a family?

Understanding homelessness is not just about understanding the physical

way that people live. It is about identifying how it impacts on people’s lives.

We spoke with fifty homeless families to understand the overall experience of

being homeless, how it affected them in a practical sense, and how it made

them feel.

The overall experience: living in limbo

A strong experience for many people was that they lived with the threat of having

support removed at any time. Even people in temporary accommodation that

was of fair quality felt unsettled. Over half of people had been told at some

point when applying for help that, if found to be intentionally homeless, the

local authority had a duty to their children but not necessarily to them and it

could result in the loss of custody. Even if this is often challengeable under

legislation and guidance, this had a profound and chilling effect on families.

The sense of fear that you were skirting the edge of becoming destitute, and

that not following the rules could result in losing your children, was top of

mind for the people we spoke to.

Ten people in our sample had support provided and then

subsequently removed at some point. This is because they

were found to be ‘intentionally’ homeless. Some of these decisions were

overturned on review. This led to families staying in accommodation provided

by social services or sofa surfing with friends.

One woman we spoke to showed how it was quite

possible to fall foul of the rules and be left in a desperate

situation. She lost her settled home due to an abusive relationship. For the first

six months her daughter and she were living in stable but cramped temporary

accommodation. However, after her housing benefit was not paid by the

council to the landlord, she was evicted and had to stay with friends, family,

and a boyfriend while an ombudsman investigated her situation. Ultimately

she had to place her daughter back with her formally abusive partner while

she stayed with a friend. Her situation showed how stepping outside of the

rules, or in her case, an error making it appear like you have, can quickly lead

to people being without any safety net support – back to the situation all too

common when Shelter was founded.


27


The impact on day-to-day: changing your life to accommodate being without a home

Even when support is in place, homelessness has many impacts

on day to day life. Families were grateful to have received

some help. But when asked, four-fifths felt that their accommodation was

not adequate for their needs. Making up for this deficit affects the way that

homeless families live. This was in three main ways: relying on family and

friends, spending more to meet needs and giving up some parts of their lives,

like work.

Relying on family and friends

Many people said they were more reliant on family and friends to meet

basic needs. This included depending on family for basic tasks including

cooking hot meals, storing possessions, or cleaning clothes and bedding.

Obviously families do often pull together in difficult times. But this

could be particularly disruptive for other family members. For example,

one father, with a son and a daughter with severe food allergies, was

placed in shared accommodation. He sent his daughter to stay on the sofa

of his mum’s one bedroom flat. However, as his mother was unwell, he asked

his brother to go over and cook and care for his daughter every day. This

was in three main ways: relying on family and friends, spending more to meet

needs and giving up some parts of their lives, like work. Homeless families

had to rely more on public spaces. Many families relied on the public Wi-Fi

in cafes and fast food chains so that older children could do their homework.

Spending more money

Many families had to spend more money to meet their basic needs such

as maintaining jobs, getting children to school, and organising their lives.

Half of families were paying for storage for their possessions. Families were

spending as much as £35 a day on taxis, buses, and trains to maintain jobs

and school places as accommodation was often far away from their previous

homes. Two thirds of families we spoke to said school runs were longer (in

some cases over two hours each way) and journeys more complicated.

Sacrificing some parts of their lives

People couldn’t always pull together enough family support or resources to

maintain their previous lives. This led to having to pause or lose aspects

of their previous lives. Work particularly suffered. More than half of families

interviewed said that being homeless made it harder for them to work. In

twelve of the families at least one parent had stopped working after being

made homeless. Two women closed down businesses, losing their own

income but also removing the jobs of other people. The main reason given

for having to stop work was having to travel longer distances. Connected to

this was no longer having local friends they could draw on to watch children,

or not having the space or resources (such as the internet) they needed.


28


“ I was working really hard, sometimes seven days a week, but it was ok because it was so close to my house, and my son’s school (and) I had a child minder, she was helping me a lot. Unfortunately when I moved here… she said it’s too far away from her to travel. I was trying to do my best but… previously I was very flexible and living here it was impossible.

As one woman described, settled housing is vital for maintaining the other

parts of your life.

“ I was spending £400 a month travelling to work… (the council told me), ‘Sorry, there’s nothing we can do. You will have to leave your job.’… We’ve only given you a roof over your head, you have to do the rest,’ So, I had to give up my job because I can’t afford it. And it’s like you see statistics for people being on benefits, and it’s like, this forced me to be on benefits.

Some of the other areas families had to cut out were even

more worrying. One mother spoke about not feeling it was safe to wean her

baby as she couldn’t sterilise bottles and equipment. Three other parents

mentioned not being able to maintain their children’s developmental progress,

for example not having space for young children to practice walking. Four

families reported that their children missed school. One child missed a year

of infant school as they moved too far from their previous home and were

unable to secure an alternative school place.


29


The way it makes people feel: Feeling that you lack control over meeting your basic needs

People recounted feeling that their lives were out of their hands. They have

experienced something that has demonstrated to them that they cannot

guarantee they can meet their child’s basic need to be housed. They are

uncertain of their futures and dependent on others. Their private lives have

become open to public scrutiny or intervention.

Knowing that a basic need is reliant on someone else is a stressful

experience. This could be further exacerbated in two ways. Firstly, interviewees

continued to struggle to find a settled home they could afford to rent, even

after the council had helped them into temporary accommodation, and even

after they had continued to search intensively. Secondly, they struggled to

plan their future. Some spent time learning about housing and homelessness

law in order to understand their rights and practical details such as how long

they would have to stay in shared accommodation. Doing this allowed people

to be able to plan around this. For example arranging for their children to stay

in school or to pay to put the contents of their home into temporary storage.

This attempt to regain control was undermined when the law was broken, for

example when families were kept in cramped accommodation for longer than

is lawful.

“It’s the not knowing, not knowing where you are moving to and not knowing what to say to my children, knowing that we’re moving house, and where are we moving to? Just living out of suitcases and boxes and not being able to find clothes and searching for your bits, being so unorganised just makes your head unorganised at the same time.

This lack of control was compounded by people feeling isolated from support.

In many cases isolation stemmed from having to move far from family and

friends. Even if distances were not great, the cost, the time needed, and ability

to travel with small children limited this. Some people were also restricted

due to rules on visitors. Shelter researchers were thrown out of someone’s

bedroom after half an hour by a landlord living off site who had installed

CCTV throughout the hostel.

In addition, many people spoke about how they had frozen out some

friends and family members due to feelings of shame and embarrassment.


30


“ Going through it (you) feel such shame; it’s embarrassing. I can’t tell people. It must make me a terrible person to be made homeless. You feel like a scrounger, scum.

The vast majority of families had also not spoken with other families living in

the same place as them. Rather than communities of support forming, most

people were keen to keep out of each other’s way.

“ There’s a lot of noise but you don’t want to leave and challenge people. I don’t know anyone up there. I don’t know what harm I’m doing to myself because if someone will hold a grudge and make your life complete hell. If it was just me, I could, but I’ve got (son) and I can’t put him in any danger


31


The way it impacts on families: Insecurity damages relationships and children’s life chances

Homelessness causes people to have to cope with less, to feel isolated, and

to know that a key component of their family’s lives is out of their control.

This had some serious knock-on impacts for families. For families in shared

accommodation, or living in small self-contained accommodation, being

in close proximity made things difficult. Parents reported arguments and

frustration as a result of being ‘cooped up’ as well as general stress from

having limited space.

“ I need to change my sanitary wear in private, I need to get dressed in private, I need a minute to cry in private. I can’t do everything in front of that little boy, it’s affecting him. I need a private moment, life’s too difficult… The heat. The noise from upstairs. Constant banging, noise from down the corridor.

Many parents also spoke of the need to put on a brave face, and appear

strong for their children. Parents reported children being more tearful and

anxious. Most of the parents interviewed felt that their children’s mental

health had been affected by living in temporary accommodation, and many

raised serious concerns about them being too tired to learn or not having

space to prepare for important exams.

“ Last week she had three exams. She says ‘I can’t learn in here’ so now she just stays at school till late. Sometimes, if she has an exam, I go out, just walking around at night with the baby… I walk around and sit in the park. I walk in the cemetery.

All of parents interviewed stated that their or their partner’s mental health

was affected by being homeless. Some people spoke about anxiety and

depression, and some of having thoughts of self-harm, including taking their

own lives, in the past. Many people were badly affected by feeling they had a

lack of control over the situation.

“ It’s crossing my mind whether or not to give the girls up to make it better for them. Because I don’t know what to do anymore… I think it’s just a case of the depression now is due to…I’m not being a proper mum. I can’t feed them. I can’t… I’m not doing what I should be doing, what I’ve done for years.


32


These impacts and experiences have been raised in countless reports over

the last few decades. As the number of people who are homeless (or who

are becoming homeless rises), the need to address this, and prevent it

happening, becomes more acute.


33


Conclusion to section one

Homelessness is still a largely hidden issue in England today. But we know

that hundreds of thousands of people are currently homeless, and

documented in available statistics. Many more people are homeless, but

currently hidden. For example, they are relying on the support of family and

friends or have nowhere to stay.

An increasing number of families live in unsuitable accommodation.

The number of families living in shared accommodation (such as hostels or

B&Bs) has doubled in the last five years. Some homeless accommodation we

visited was shockingly poor; some of the people we spoke with were living in

ways comparable to the housing conditions that Shelter drew attention to in

the sixties. We also found striking similarities between some accommodation

classed as ‘shared’ (and in theory subject to restrictions on its use) and

accommodation classed as ‘self-contained’. Families who were sofa surfing

with friends were grateful to be living in a supportive environment, but

described the uncertainty of relying on other people’s goodwill, and not being

sure when this would run out.

The physical make up of accommodation is vital. And it is essential that

people made homeless are able to access a safe and decent temporary place

to stay. However being homeless isn’t just about the condition of where you

are living. It is also about having to put your life on pause, manage with less,

manage the uncertainty of your living situation and cope with the knowledge

that, however temporary, a key component of your family’s lives is out of your

control.

This impacts on parent’s ability to work, their health and sometimes

their children’s physical and mental wellbeing. Parents described children

being more withdrawn, isolating themselves from friends and acting up. It also

caused disruption that had serious consequences such as children missing

school. We need to make sure that homeless families have somewhere to

stay that is safe and decent while they find a settled home.

We are currently in a period where homelessness is steadily rising.

Millions more people are worried that they could face the same experience.22

To prevent this crisis getting worse, we need to address the issues that are

causing so many people to become homeless.

In the next chapter we will seek to do this by exploring the causes and

underlying drivers of homelessness.

The Green Book ReportSection one What’s the reality of homelessness in 2016?

Homelessness then and now

1960s

‘Teachers report that the three children of school age often fall

asleep in class because they don’t get proper rest at home. The

dampness that stains the walls and ceilings affects their health.

Floorboards are loose, and the sanitary and washing facilities are

in appalling shape. The family are pestered by mice’.

Today

Miss ‘A’ and her two young children live in a self-contained unit

in Welwyn Garden City. Their damp and mouldy room is making

the living conditions unbearable. The room is also infested with

cockroaches. Getting enough sleep has become a serious issue,

and ‘A’ has regularly received calls from her daughter’s nursery

informing her that (daughter) has been asleep since she arrived.

Three flights of stairs with TB:

1960s

‘Mr E, who is 56, lives in one room on the third floor of a slum

house. He is suffering from a tuberculosis condition but has to

climb up three flights of stairs. His specialist has told the council

that at all costs he must be given a ground floor flat’.

Today

Mr S, who suffers from an involuntary movement disorder, is

forced to climb the stairs of his one bedroom flat when attending

the toilet. His disability means that even the simplest task

becomes unsafe, and has previously fallen down the stairs. At

night he feels unable to climb the stairs, and so has been forced

to urinate in a bedpan in the room with his wife and daughter.

34

The Green Book ReportSection one What’s the reality of homelessness in 2016?

Sharing facilities with lots of people, no privacy for family life:

1960s

‘Mr D gets £12 a week, and pays £3 a week rent for the two small

rooms that he, his wife, and their five children occupy. Their four

sons sleep in one bed, and the other child shares a bed with his

parents. 14 people live in the small, two-storey house, and all

share the same bathroom and toilet. They also share the cooker

which is on the floor above their living room. There is very little

privacy for family life’.

Today

‘Mr A and his family are just one of thirty families who rely upon

this hostel in Ilford to house them. The accommodation is made

up of three separate houses, with only one functional kitchen,

which is infested with mice. Tenants are expected to walk

outside to enter the kitchen, along with their food and utensils,

as thirty families try to cook in one kitchen.’

Six sleep in one room:

1960s

‘Mr and Mrs T. live with their four boys (aged from five and a

half to one) in a damp, mice-ridden house, in Islington, London.

They all sleep in one room measuring ten feet by twelve feet,

with parents in a double bed, three elder boys in two bunks, and

the baby in the cot’.

Today

‘Mr ‘M’, his partner, five children, and one grandchild, all share

one room in a hostel in Ilford, infested with mice and cockroaches.

They all sleep in the room, with three teenage daughters sleeping

on a broken pull-out bed, another daughter on a fold up bed with

her child, whilst the parents share their own bed.

35


36

Section twoWhat causes homelessness in 2016?


37

Section two What causes homelessness?

What causes homelessness in 2016?

In order to prevent people becoming homeless, we

must understand what is causing homelessness.

We looked at this issue in three ways:

Firstly, we studied the places where people are

being made homeless and the types of households

that are becoming homeless. This allows us to

understand who is at risk, and where they are at risk.

It enabled us to gain insight into the structural and

personal factors that might cause homelessness

today, and the balance between these.

Secondly, we looked at what actually happens

when people become homeless. We explored

this in more detail by getting the perspectives

of people made homeless. This allowed us to

understand what was going on in their lives at

the time, and what they feel contributed to them

being made homeless. It gave us a fuller and more

meaningful understanding of the data recorded

in the homelessness statistics. It also allows

us to understand the reasons that people lose

their homes, the barriers people faced in helping

themselves to stay housed, and to identify the

opportunities for intervention.

Finally, we looked at what was happening

around the time that homelessness began to rise,

and what has been happening since that could

explain why this is becoming more common.

We examined what was happening across the

labour and housing markets, and also the support

available to people. This allowed us to explore

relationships between these areas of policy, in order

to identify what could have caused the recent rise

on homelessness, and what could be put in place

to halt it. We also look to the future to understand

what could improve and the opportunities to avert

further decline.


38


Where are people becoming homeless and who is affected?

Popular explanations for the causes of homelessness tend to be divided

into two categories: structural factors and factors relating to the individual.

Structural factors may include a lack of decent, affordable, accessible

housing23. Individual factors include issues relating to physical and mental

health.

There is now more of a general consensus that individual and structural

explanations are not mutually exclusive24. Structural factors create the

conditions within which homelessness occurs, and then individual factors

determine the likelihood of becoming homeless in those conditions25. To

explore the extent to which these different factors impact homelessness, we

examined26 the relationship between levels of homelessness and a range of

local conditions. We then looked at households that seem to be particularly

at risk of homelessness, and dove into household level data to see what

conclusions we could draw about the causes of homelessness.

Over the following three sections we explore:

■■ Where are the areas most affected by homelessness

■■ Who are the households most at risk of homelessness

■■ How these local and personal factors appear to inter-relate


39


Where are the areas most affected by homelessness?

Homelessness happens everywhere, but people are much more likely to

be made homeless in some areas compared to others. Looking at where

homelessness is particularly high can help us to understand the local factors

that might make households more vulnerable to becoming homeless. All

analysis below uses data on the number of households found to be homeless

and in priority need (homelessness acceptances).

Homelessness is particularly high in London: one in three people made

homeless in the last year lived there. This is not explained by population

size. In fact a person living in London is almost five times as likely to become

homeless as someone in the North East.

London boroughs also dominate the local areas with the highest levels

of statutory homelessness per head of household population. The local

authority with the highest level of homelessness (per household) in England

is Barking and Dagenham. In fact, the top five areas are all London boroughs,

and twenty six out of the top fifty places are London boroughs. Within other

regions, homelessness is concentrated in urban areas. Local authorities in

big cities like Birmingham and Manchester also make it into the top fifty.

This difference hasn’t always been so pronounced. Five years ago, over

one in five households made homeless were in London: as opposed to one


40


in three in the last twelve months. In fact, recent rises in homelessness are

explained almost exclusively by growth in London and the South East. In

London, the number of households made homeless is now twice as high as

it was just five years ago.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

East Midlands

East of England

London

North East

North West

South East

South West

West Midlands

Yorkshire and the Humber

2016

Q2

2016

Q1

2015

Q4

2015

Q3

2015

Q2

2015

Q1

2014

Q4

2014

Q3

2014

Q2

2014

Q1

2013

Q4

2013

Q3

2013

Q2

2013

Q1

2012

Q4

2012

Q3

2012

Q2

2012

Q1

2011

Q4

2011

Q3

2011

Q2

2011

Q1

Regional Homeless Trends since 2011


41


What is happening in areas with high levels of homelessness?

We looked at how the number of people made statutory homeless in an area

relate to other measures of social and economic issues.

Measures of deprivation and earnings

Looking at map two, we can see that the pattern of homelessness across

the country does not match the pattern of ‘deprivation’. The indices of

Multiple Deprivation (IMD) are designed to capture which areas are more or

less deprived and are comprised of seven different dimensions28. As the IMD

includes a measure of homelessness, it would be misleading if we were to

examine the relationship between homelessness and overall scores on the

index at local authority level. However, looking at individual measures can

help to explore the features distinguishing the areas where homelessness is

occurring.

There is little evidence of correlation between homelessness and many

measures of deprivation. For example, there is no relationship between

employment deprivation measures, health or education.29


42


There is a small positive correlation between being homeless and living in an

areas with a higher proportion of people on low incomes (correlation coefficient

of 0.32). There is also a small positive correlation between homelessness and

the level of child poverty in an area (0.37).

Comparing rates of homelessness with median earnings finds that,

perhaps counter-intuitively, higher average earnings in an area have a

small positive correlation with levels of homelessness. The relationship is

small (0.3), but is statistically significant. However, this does not mean that

households with higher average incomes are themselves more susceptible

to homelessness: read alongside the correlation between homelessness and

levels of child poverty, this could suggest that ‘purchasing power’ is an issue.

It appears that homelessness occurs where it is harder for families on low

incomes to compete with more affluent households for homes. This could

suggest that inequality rather than deprivation is more of an explanation

of homelessness.


43


Housing

Map three shows average house prices across England. Areas with high

levels of homelessness mirror the areas with particularly high house prices.

Housing affordability has a strong relationship with homelessness.

The size of the private rented sector in an area also has a relationship to

levels of homelessness. The proportion of households that rent privately has

a moderate positive relationship with the level of homelessness (correlation

coefficient of 0.5). Areas with a high proportion of private rented homes have

higher rates of homelessness. But this factor is clearly not enough on its own

to explain why households are more likely to be made homeless (and why

many are becoming homeless due to the end of a private tenancy).

The affordability of the private rented sector is an important factor to

consider, but this relates not just to the absolute cost of private rents but

the extent to which incomes or support with housing costs (by way of

housing benefit) is adequate. If someone is unable to find a property that

is affordable within Local Housing Allowance limits they may struggle to

avoid homelessness. In some parts of the country the gap between typical

private rents and the maximum amount of housing benefit a family can claim

is significant.


44


The size of this gap has a small positive relationship with rates of

homelessness (correlation coefficient of 0.37), suggesting this is one factor

that contributes to people becoming homeless. Homelessness is also strongly

related to levels of instability in the private rented market.

Overall, this initial analysis suggests that households are more vulnerable

to homelessness in areas with high housing costs, a larger private rented

sector and higher earnings. Now we know where people are more likely to

become homeless, we turn to look at the households who seem to be more

likely to become homeless.


45


Households particularly vulnerable to homelessness

Statutory data tells us a certain amount about the characteristics of households

that become homeless, but leaves many questions unanswered. To help draw

a richer picture of households vulnerable to becoming homeless, we have

combined knowledge from statutory data with insight from our interviews

with fifty families who have experienced homelessness.

Household type

Almost three quarters of households accepted as homeless (73%) are

families with children. This mainly reflects the fact that the system is designed

to prioritise these groups and they are more likely to present to councils as

homeless. However, there are certain barriers to housing that families are

more likely to face than single people. Families have more limited choices

when it comes to finding a home: The bar is likely to be higher in terms

of what constitutes acceptable standards of space, conditions, and safety.

Even if they find a suitable home, they may find landlords unwilling to let to

people with children. Over a third of landlords surveyed in 2015 said they are

unwilling to, or would prefer not to, let to a household with children. Having

children in tow also makes it harder to shelter with friends or family members.

One parent families are over-represented amongst homeless

households. Two thirds of families accepted as homeless are one parent

families, compared to one in four families in England. Nine in ten (93%) of

these households are headed by a woman. This means that almost half of

all homeless households are single mothers. These patterns have stayed

broadly constant over the last decade.

There are many explanations for this. The first is that relationship

breakdown is responsible for 1 in every 6 cases of homelessness in England.

Not only does it lead to the formation of a separate household, it can make it

more difficult for the parent left behind to continue to cover the costs of the

existing home. Nearly one in three people living with a partner say that they

feel they wouldn’t be able to cover their housing costs for any length of time

if their relationship broke down30. Another factor is that single parent families

are almost twice as likely to experience poverty as couple parent families31.

One parent families with young children face greater barriers to working. They

are almost half as likely to have a parent in employment as a couple family32.

Single parents have also been the households hardest hit by tax and benefit

reforms since 201033,34.


46


Being a single parent was something that our interviewees felt placed extra

barriers to them finding a new home. Primary among these barriers was

the inability to work full time, or to have flexibility about working hours. We

also know there is a moderate positive correlation between the proportion

of households that are lone parents in an area and levels of homelessness

(0.49).

Age

Households that become statutory homeless are also likely to be younger. One

in four are under 45. These statistics are likely to under-represent the full extent

of homelessness amongst young people as they are more likely to be without

dependent children or have a particular health issue, and may therefore be

turned away for not being in priority need. This means they won’t be officially

recorded as homeless. Survey data suggests that one in five 16-25 year olds

have sofa surfed in the last year, almost half for more than a month35. One in ten

had stayed in emergency accommodation, and almost one in three had slept

rough, including one in four for more than one night.

Ethnicity

People whose ethnicity is not ‘white’ also appear to be more vulnerable to

becoming homeless. One in three (35%) applicants for homeless assistance

are of black, Asian, or minority ethnicity compared to one in seven of England’s

population36. Black and minority ethnic (BME) households are more likely to

be in poverty. The proportion of people found to be homeless that define

themselves as BME has risen overall from one in five to one in three in the

last decade. However this change could be explained due to homelessness

becoming concentrated over this period in London and the South East, where

there are more BME households.

Nationality

One in five (19%) households accepted as homeless are foreign nationals.

Half of these are from within the European Economic Area (EEA) and half

are from outside of the EEA. Proportionally, this is higher than the number

of people of non-British nationality in England, although it is lower than the

proportion of non-British nationals living in London, where the largest number

of households become homeless37. This pattern could also be explained due

to the current geographic patterns in homelessness.


47


The true number of non-British households affected by homelessness is likely

to be higher than this. Many non-British people will be found to be ineligible

for homelessness support so are not included in these statistics.

Some of our interviewees who had migrated to the UK in the last ten

years highlighted how they had no friends or family nearby and that this made

it harder to find someone to stay with temporarily. However, this was also the

case for some British-born homeless households who had moved towns or

whose family was older and/or unable to help.

There are particular barriers to housing experienced by people who are

non-British nationals or who are from a visible minority. Landlords are now

required to carry out ‘right to rent’ checks on the immigration status of all new

tenants, with the penalty for non-compliance extending to a possible prison

sentence. A 2015 survey of landlords found that of those who had heard of

the requirement, 44% said that the right to rent rules meant that they were

less likely to rent to ‘People who appear to be/ I perceive to be immigrants’.

Work and unemployment

There are no formal records of how many homeless people work. Shelter

analysis of housing benefit data suggests that one third of households in

temporary accommodation in England are in work, rising to half of households

in temporary accommodation in London38. The majority of the people we

interviewed were working at the time they were made homeless. A further

seven households were completing a vocational qualification. Our sample

included two student nurses and two other NHS employees. Two of the

people we spoke to owned businesses that employed other people. Three

people worked for high street retail chains. Three people were self-employed.

Seven households included someone who was in work but currently on

maternity leave.

The number of people working at the point they became homeless may

be higher than this. Three fifths of our sample said that becoming homeless

had made it harder for them to work. Mental health problems and access

to jobs and childcare were a particular issue that worsened in response to

homelessness. 35 interviewees said that becoming homeless had impacted

their mental health. Having to move regularly or far away had caused people

to have to leave their job.

Income

There are no national statistics on the income of homeless people. Our

research suggests that living on a low income made people more at risk.

Working in fields like retail or care meant that earning potential was limited,

with salaries often around the National Living Wage. This made it difficult to

find housing that was affordable on earned income alone, making reliance

on benefits essential. Some people had circumstances, such as health

conditions, disabilities or family responsibilities that restricted their ability to

work or to increase their hours.


48


A related issue was having social and family networks who were also living

on low incomes, meaning that the support they were able to draw on when

they were faced with homelessness was limited. For example, the main

reason that people said they couldn’t stay with friends or family was because

they didn’t know anyone with space to accommodate them. Even where

this was possible, circumstances tended to be cramped and unsatisfactory.

Some homeless families were in situations where they were the ones having

to support other wider family members, rather than being the ones receiving

support. Many people we interviewed had trouble renting privately without

having someone who owns their home to act as a guarantor.

Wider data shows us that rates of household formation are dropping

and more and more adults, including families with children, are living with

parents or in a home with another household40. Housing costs are a strong

contributor to this trend. People who are not able to rely on this support from

family or friends will be more vulnerable to homelessness.


49


Understanding what puts households at risk

The available quantitative and qualitative data on families who become

homeless suggest that they are typically poorer and may be disadvantaged in

some way that makes employment or full-time work more difficult. Comparing

homelessness in different areas, however, has shown that homelessness

does not seem to be correlated with measures of deprivation such as low

education, high unemployment, or poor health. Rather it is higher in areas

with lots of private renters, high housing costs, child poverty, and possibly,

income inequality.

This supports the idea that both structural and personal drivers of

homelessness play a role. It is hard to know whether certain households are

more at risk of becoming homeless due to something personal to them, or

because they live in an area with local characteristics (like high house prices)

that put them at risk. To help unpick this we compared the characteristics

of a group who might be said to be at risk of homelessness (private renters

struggling with their housing) in both an area where homelessness is high

and rising (London) and in an area where homelessness is relatively low (the

North West, the North East, and Yorkshire and the Humber combined – what

we are calling for ease of expression, ‘the North’). Data is from the Family

Resources Survey41.

Looking at the characteristics of privately renting households between

areas

A slightly higher proportion of privately renting households in London are

struggling than in the Northern regions.

London North

Proportion of renters who say they are struggling with high housing costs

28% 24%

The biggest differences are in the types of households that are struggling.

Of renters who say they struggled to pay high housing costs

London North

Average income relative to average private renter income in the region

64% 55%

No-one working full time 50% 70%

Economically inactive 15% 30%

Retired 5% 10%

Disabled household member 27% 46%


50


Of renters who say they struggled to pay high housing costs

London North

One parent family 18% 25%

One parent family where parent is out of work

34% 62%

No savings 81% 77%

Issues with affordability stretch higher up the income scale in London than

in the North. Private renters that struggle with their housing are poorer than

average private renters in both regions. But, in the North, they are much

poorer in comparison to other private renters than this group are in London.

Private renters in London are more likely to be of working age, have at

least one person working full time and have fewer barriers to earning higher

incomes – for example a family member with a disability – than those in the

North. Private renters in both areas tend to have no savings.

Private renters struggling with affordability in London are generally

working and have fewer barriers to earning higher incomes than those in the

North. Homelessness has grown most, even when the growth in households in

the private rented sector is taken into account. Although there are undoubtedly

vulnerable families in the capital’s private rented sector, a London renting

household does not need to be obviously vulnerable to struggle to pay for their

home. In regions where families struggling with housing affordability have more

vulnerable characteristics, there hasn’t been as large an increase in homelessness

originating in the private rented sector. This suggests it is in fact structural issues

with housing that have come to dominate the rise in homelessness acceptances

over recent years.

In conclusion

The evidence suggests that homelessness is high in areas with expensive

housing and income inequality. People who may be particularly at risk of

becoming homeless are younger, in one parent families, and importantly,

on a low income. Analysis of private renters across the country suggests

that it is ‘structural factors’, like high housing costs, that are dominating the

reasons why people are becoming vulnerable to homelessness in areas where

homelessness is high. In order to understand how these factors do and do

not lead to homelessness, we will now look in more detail at what is actually

happening to cause these households to become homeless in these areas.


51


What happens to cause someone to become homeless?

We have explored a range of factors that are associated with a higher

incidence of homelessness. However, these factors are hard to clearly specify,

causation is hard to follow and the relationship between them is not always

apparent. it is still unclear from this what actually creates the circumstances

in which people become homeless.

The homelessness statistics give some insight into this. They record

the reason that each household loses their last settled home. Some of these

reasons are housing related (the ending of a tenancy or rent arrears) and some

appear to be driven by more personal factors (parents or friends no longer

willing or able to accommodate the household, or relationship breakdown).

As can be seen, the most common reason people become homeless

in England in the last year is because of the end of an assured shorthold

tenancy (AST) (32%). The next most common is because family or friends

are no longer willing or able to accommodate the household (27%) and

the third most common is relationship breakdown42. Other issues such as

mortgage or rent arrears make up a much smaller proportion of the total.

Family or friends no longer able or willing to provide accommodation

Relationship breakdown with partner

Mortgage arrears (repossession or otherloss of home)

Rent arrears

End of assured shorthold tenancy

Loss of other rented or tied housing

Other reasons


52


An assured shorthold tenancy (AST) is the most common form of tenancy in the private rented sector.

Assured shorthold tenancies can either be arranged initially on a fixed term or a rolling, month-to-month

basis.

The vast majority of assured shorthold tenancy agreements are initially arranged for a fixed term of either

six or twelve months, although if both landlord and tenant agree they can be longer.

In an assured shorthold tenancy the tenant has the right to stay for an initial six month period. Outside

of this, as long as the landlord has met their legal duties to the tenant, they can end the tenancy at their

discretion by giving the tenant two months’ notice to leave.

Whilst in 1994/5 around 800,000 households lived in a home rented on an AST, in 2014/15 this had

increased to nearly 3.5 million private renting households.

This wasn’t always the case. In the early nineties, the leading trigger of

homelessness was people having to leave the parental home. This remained

the case (with the exception of a period in the late nineties) until 2011. In fact

as recently as 2009, the ending of an AST was only the fourth most common

reason why a household would be made homeless.

Narrowing in we can see that issues with renting explain almost all

of the rise in the last decade. The numbers of households losing their last

settled home due to the end of an AST explained the vast majority of this

increase.


53


Reasons for Loss of Last Settled Home

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Parents no longer willing/able to provide accommodation

Other relatives/friends no longer willing/able to provide accommodation

Violent relationship breakdown

Other relationship breakdown

Mortgage arrears

Rent arrears

End of AST

Loss of other rented or tied housing

Other

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

This gives us an insight into what is trigerring homelessness. However, this

data doesn’t tell us much that we can act on with certainty. Some of the

information these statistics communicate is unclear. For example, they may

tell us that some people became homeless due to ‘relationship breakdown’.

But this tells us little about what we really need to do to prevent this. Is this due

to individual factors, a history of partner violence, or substance abuse that split

the household? Or is it a case of an everyday phenomenon (the ending of a

relationship) leading to homelessness as one of the party are unable to afford to

house themselves due to a low income and/ or an expensive housing market 43?

Similarly, knowing that mortgage arrears can be a trigger for

homelessness has its own limitations: its significance is clear (if you do not

keep up with your mortgage repayments, you will lose your home) but it tells

us nothing about the reasons for the arrears (e.g. loss of employment, illness,

relationship breakdown). Analysing these statistics on their own, without an

understanding of the experiences they are trying to quantify, can disconnect

us from reality.

This is particularly the case with the opaque trigger of ‘the ending of an AST’.

Are renters securely housed, but then lose their tenancy after their income is

cut? Or are renters able to meet their current tenancy conditions, but unable

to stay when their landlord asks for a higher rent? Or do the figures reflect

rising rent arrears and landlords’ frustrations? In addition, there are also a

number of households, who are homeless and in priority need but deemed to

be ‘intentionally’ so. We have even less information about these households

and how they came to lose their home.


54


What more can we learn from the experience of families?

Therefore, in order to understand homelessness, and provide some context

to the data, it is necessary to take account of the stories and biographies

of people who have experienced becoming homeless. This allows us to

understand people’s experiences and also examine how these experiences

fit into their wider life history.

In order to explore this in more depth, we analysed the case histories and

perspectives of homeless people across England. The interviews identified

three key stages to ‘becoming homeless’.

Over the following three sections we will explore these stages:

■■ Why they lost their last settled home and the background to this.

■■ Why they could not find a new settled home.

■■ Their experience of approaching the council for help.


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What is going on when people lose their last settled home?

We started our analysis by grouping these interviewees into four categories

according to the trigger for their homelessness given in the homelessness

statistics: those whose friends or families could no longer accommodate

them, those who had had a relationship breakdown, those who had lost their

home following the end of a private rented sector tenancy, and those who

were found to be intentionally homeless.

We sought to understand what actually happened when these families

lost their home and what these, sometimes opaque, categories could refer

to in reality.


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Friends and family no longer willing/able to accommodate

In the last twelve months in England 16,000 households were made homeless

because friends, parents, or other family members were no longer willing or

able to accommodate them. This is the second most commonly recorded

reason that households became homeless.

Fourteen people in our sample of 50 lost their last settled home because

their friends or family were no longer willing or able to accommodate them.

These households became threatened with ‘rooflessness’ when the

household they were staying with could not continue to host them. However,

a breakdown in family relationships was only the root cause of homelessness

in two cases. In twelve of the fourteen cases44, the stay with friends or family

was seen as an interim solution to homelessness, not as a settled home.

In other words for the people concerned this official ‘reason for loss of

last settled home’ was not seen as the point at which they became homeless.

When asked to explain in their own words ‘how they became homeless’,

their description of the events and the contributing factors that made them

homeless was similar to families made homeless for other reasons:

“ My company got bought out and they cut our pay and reduced overtime. I went two months behind with the rent. I went to [payday loan company] to get the money and cleared it. It was alright the next month, but I think the landlord was fed up and gave us an eviction notice so we moved in with my brother.

The housing journeys were very similar to other families in the sample, except

that they had been in a position to stay with family or friends after losing a

tenancy rather than immediately present themselves to the council.

In a very small number of cases, there was a specific trigger that meant

that their living arrangement with family or friends went from being tolerable

to being unsuitable. For example, one person left the parental home after

taking on custody of a child who had behavioural issues.

In all other cases, the situation was always difficult to manage, but

became intolerable for the household as it became clear that it was a long

term arrangement that was not resolvable within the foreseeable future.

Households were very overcrowded. In two cases five children and three

adults shared a two bedroom home. In another, a woman with a new born

baby was sharing a studio flat with a friend and her two year old son. Despite

this being recorded as a ‘settled home’, the arrangements looked like a

version of ‘sofa surfing’. Only two of the households had their own bedroom

as a family.


57


“ I was staying with friends at the beginning. And obviously they ended up getting fed up with me and then I would stay at my dad’s when I could but he couldn’t have me he’s got really bad mental health problems

Stays with family or friends were as long as eighteen months. Towards the

end of stays with friends or family, some families went through a period of

shorter stays, ping-ponging between different households as they struggled

to keep housed.

Broadly, we can conclude from our sample that these households’

stay with family and friends was a response to rather than a trigger of

homelessness, and that family breakdown was not a root cause of their

homelessness. In fact, many families had ended up in this position after a

period of being vulnerably housed. For example, they had been evicted or

had left home after no longer being able to afford the rent. One had stayed

with his sister for a period after splitting with his partner.

Our evidence suggests that even when people become officially

homeless due to friends and family no longer being able to accommodate

them, the underlying reason tends to be that they have been forced out of the

housing market, leaving family and friends as an inadequate and ultimately

temporary solution.


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Relationship breakdown

Last year 9,310 households lost their last settled home due to a relationship

breakdown. Seven in ten of these were due to a relationship breakdown that

was violent.

Nine people in our sample were made homeless due to a relationship

breakdown. For the majority of people, this followed a period of abuse.

The reason that the (in all cases) mother had to leave the home was due to

needing to leave the area to ensure that an abusive partner couldn’t find the

family, and also because their tenancy was in their partner’s name. When

abuse was involved these homelessness journeys were sudden. This left no

or limited time to look for other properties, and these people were helped on

the very day they approached the council.

“ I left and went to the council and they helped me find something that day.

What stood out was that for this group especially, becoming ‘homeless’ – i.e.

being found to be unintentionally homeless and in priority need – could be a

‘positive’ step. People leaving violent partners were safer once they had left

their home.

It is vital that people leaving abusive relationships are able to access

help to leave their home, and aren’t discouraged. The importance of this is

shown by one woman who became homeless due to relationship breakdown.

The researcher followed up with her after she had moved into settled

accommodation and found she was having trouble with her ex-partner again.

However, she was not going to the council for help again as her experience

was so negative.

“ To be honest the last thing I want to do now is move. Because I waited and I suffered a lot to get it and so did my son. I’ve spent so much money on this house, and getting everything slowly building it up, then like losing it all again to go back to temporary accommodation it’s just… I’m just going to try and keep my head down.


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Ending of an AST

In the last twelve months, 18,640 households lost their home due to the

ending of an assured shorthold tenancy. This is 32% of all the households

that were made homeless. London households are more acutely affected

(41% of all homelessness cases in London) compared to areas outside of

London (27%). Twenty people in our sample lost their last home due to the

ending of an AST.

Households that were made homeless due to the ending of an AST told

a relatively straightforward homelessness journey:

“Our landlord wanted the house back, so we had to leave.

An intrinsic part of the experience of their journey to ‘becoming

homeless’ was that once they had to move, they couldn’t find

anywhere else to live. They struggled to access affordable housing

and many found that they couldn’t afford any properties available to

rent privately. The reasons for this are explored in more detail later.

There were three broad groups in our sample. Most people were in groups

1 or 2.:

1. The people in the first group had stable housing histories and were

settled in their homes, having been there for three or more years.

They were not at risk of homelessness until the moment at which

they lost their AST. However, by this time housing costs had gone up

leaving them unable to find somewhere new to live. One woman had

lived for 12 years in London, including three years owning a home

until she went through divorce, sold the property, and spent eight

years renting the same home. She was made homeless when her

landlady wanted to sell her property.

‘It was ideal. It was right by his school but also close enough to

work that I could get there quickly. It was fine, I’d never missed

a rent payment’

2. The second group were very similar to the first. They were not at

risk of homelessness until they were evicted. However, their AST

ended at a point their financial circumstances were tightened. In

the majority of cases, this was the result of a short term change

such as being on maternity leave or going part time to cope with

an ill child. They were not at risk of homelessness however when

their AST ended, the combination of a rising housing market and

their lower income meant they couldn’t find anywhere else to live.

For both of these groups, eviction was particularly hard to respond


60


to because it came suddenly and at a time when they weren’t

necessarily preparing for a change, for example by taking action

to cut back on expenditure or scoping out a move. People were

settled and enmeshed in an area with work, social networks and

children’s schools. Housing was often treated as one of the more

certain elements of their lives, with other more fluctuating factors, like

childcare or work, planned around it.

3. The final group was smaller. They were people who appeared to

be bouncing between multiple private renting homes, before finally

finding that they couldn’t find anywhere else. They moved at the

end of every assured shorthold tenancy (every year or more). They

also showed signs of typically ‘descending’ the housing market into

poorer quality or smaller accommodation or shorter and shorter term

lets:

‘I was renting and the rent went up and so I moved into like a

shared house but the landlord wanted that back so I went and

house sat for some friends for a month. Then I was a property

guardian, then they wanted that back so I moved into a place, like

a room with the landlord. When he saw I was pregnant he was

like you can’t stay here and he gave me eviction papers’

In two cases in this third group people had to leave their home

as the standard of the property was so bad, it had to be demolished, reflecting

the poor conditions that some families are living in.

Other studies have suggested the possibility that the increase in

homelessness caused by the ending of an AST could be related to the growing

use of the private rented sector to house people who have approached the

council in housing need. Our study has uncovered that this is by no means the

full picture, but may be a part of the story. Three (out of twenty) people in our

sample were made homeless from private rented accommodation that they

were helped into by the council. With the growing use of the private rented

tenancies to house previously homeless households, this is a potentially

emerging issue that needs further monitoring.

Some households were unaware of the reason why their landlord had

asked for the house back. Many dealt with letting agents acting on behalf of

the landlord, or appointed intermediaries. A few even found it hard to clarify

what they were being asked to do or to try to negotiate changed terms. One

related how the council even struggled to find out what might be behind the

landlord’s motivations.

“ They rang up the landlord and were like so why are you kicking her out, and he wouldn’t say, he was just saying I want the house back, its mine I can do that


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A common explanation, when an eviction notice came out of

the blue, was housing market related. It appeared that in the majority of cases

the landlord had decided to sell, as home prices were rising. This is what

most people had been told. Other people were told that they wanted to

convert the home to attract sharers, or because they felt that the house was

not priced at the market rate.

“ I was paying £625 for it. He wanted £900 for it. He gets £925 for it now. He actually said ‘I’m entitled to more money so I’m gonna get it’. That’s what he said. So I was like, ‘thanks a lot mate!’

Another common experience was an eviction following an event that had

caused the household to have to communicate with the landlord. One

woman requested two sets of repairs in a few months and was then served

an eviction notice, which she believed was related to asking for repairs. Two

families experienced a drop in income and contacted the landlord to ask if

they could renegotiate their rent while they were on maternity leave, or after

a relationship breakdown. One was served with an eviction notice within a

week, the other was subsequently only offered to renew on a shorter tenancy.

Two other families were evicted shortly after contacting their landlord to

let them know that there was a problem with their housing benefit payments.

In both cases, this was the first time they had told their landlord that they

were getting support from benefits. Both said that at the time they thought

this might be a risky move. They felt that this had contributed to their eviction.

What stood out to this group was more the experience that came after the

‘trigger’. Being asked to leave was a stressful situation. But many people were

unsurprised by it, especially if they had experienced multiple moves. It was the

fact that after their eviction they were unable to find somewhere else suitable and

affordable to live that ultimately caused them to become homeless.


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Intentionally homeless

Seven of our sample of 50 households were not categorised as having a

reason for losing their last settled home. This was because they had been

found to be ‘intentionally homeless’. Nationally, this is a large proportion of

people ‘found to be homeless and in priority need’. In the last year 9,930

households were found to be homeless ‘intentionally’. This is a large group —

the same number as made homeless due to relationship breakdown.

The experiences of the people we interviewed divided into two

consistent stories. Two people were declared to be intentionally homeless

because they did not accept an offer of temporary accommodation that

they felt was unsuitable as it would have meant living too far away from their

work, or because it was seen as in too poor a condition. They were both

made homeless initially due to the end of an AST. Neither family had received

legal advice, which could have helped them to review the suitability of the

accommodation.

All of the other households had been made homeless due to owing

money to their landlord when they were evicted. In each case this was

connected to changes to their housing benefit. This included cases where

people had applied for benefit, but it not been transferred from the local

authority to the landlord, and people having their housing benefit stopped

without them realising when they went back into full time education or re-

training. Their arrears could be quite small amounts that had (according to

interviewees) been paid back by the time of the eviction. People in this group

had often experienced a recent drop in income that made it harder for them

to afford their housing costs.

Rent arrears is a small (although growing) trigger of homelessness

according to the homelessness statistics. But people that lose their home

due to rent arrears may represent a missing part of recent homelessness

trends if they are being found to be intentionally homeless. There are further

planned cuts to housing benefit coming this year and next. This may mean

that the number of families made homeless due to rent arrears may grow in

the future.

Further research is needed to explain the reasons that households are

becoming homeless ‘intentionally’ and to understand what happens to priority

need households found intentionally homeless. The households we spoke to

in this category had fallen into the care of social services departments or

were sofa surfing with friends. As mentioned in section one, there appears

to be a lack of knowledge among councils of how many families were in this

situation. Given that almost ten thousand homeless vulnerable households

were found to be intentionally homeless in the last twelve months alone, this

is an area that needs watching carefully.


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What other issues contributed to people becoming homeless?

While the previous section gave some insight into the types of households

seemingly more at risk of homelessness, we also sought to understand

whether, and how, other issues in their lives contributed to them becoming

homeless, and how these were distributed across the groups.

We asked people to describe any other issues that they felt had a

bearing on them losing their home, and prompted on relationships, health,

debt, and substance abuse, as well as whether the family was in contact with

social services. We were interested to see if particular issues made people

more susceptible to homelessness, and how these issues affected people.

The majority of people said that they were not affected by these issues.

No one in our sample raised problematic alcohol or substance abuse as

a contributing factor to becoming homeless. In the main, people were not

affected by their health or debt. A very small number of families were in

contact with social services when made homeless. In all cases this was due

to domestic violence, the reason they became homeless.

Ten of the fifty mentioned that the ending of a relationship had

influenced their situation in some way. Most of these were made homeless

due to relationship breakdown. Others felt that splitting with their partner

made them less able to afford a home when they were forced to move after

an eviction.

Five households said that their health, or the health of a family member

affected them becoming homeless. The main reason was that it prevented

people working, making it harder for them to afford their home, or find a

new one. Others mentioned having more difficulty finding a home that could

accommodate their physical disability. For example, one man we interviewed

was married, had a child, and had a health condition that needed a carer

staying overnight. This meant that when they were evicted from their home

they faced multiple barriers to finding a new one that met their needs. He

described how ten years ago he had been working and getting by sharing a

room in a shared house. His income had gone down since then as he was

unable to work, but his housing requirements had gone up.

We also identified examples of repeat homelessness. Three interviewees

had been homeless before. A total of seven had been homeless, or been

helped by the homelessness team to secure new housing before becoming

homeless again. One woman had been helped into four tenancies over three

years.

This is a very small sub sample. However, these interviewees did not

have characteristics or needs that were distinct from the wider group that

might have made them less likely to sustain a tenancy. All had been made

homeless most recently due to the ending of an AST.


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Barriers to finding a new settled home

Many more households lose their home each year than ultimately appear in

the homelessness statistics. Currently around just short of a million private

renting households are asked to move by their landlord each year. However,

only 89,050 households were identified as ‘homeless’ by their council last

year. Ultimately it is not only the loss of a settled home, but the inability to find

an alternative place to stay which causes households to become homeless.

We asked households to describe the barriers that they experienced

trying to find somewhere new to live. By far the most important was finding

somewhere they could afford, and persuading landlords to let them rent it.


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Most important barriers to finding an alternative home

Not being able to find somewhere they could afford to rent on their

income

Having an income that was too low to afford many of the homes on the

market was a major barrier for all of the respondents. Many were told by

letting agents that they needed to have a household income that was ‘twice

as much as the rent’. This could push the cost of renting a two bedroom

home in outer London out of the price range of households.

Half of respondents initially approached the council to find out if there

were any affordable homes to rent in their area. Not all families sought social

housing but those that did found that there were limited options.

“ I first applied for a home in 2008, when I was first evicted from private. So I was set up. I went back when we were asked to leave to see if there was anything they could do. We were bidding but they don’t tell you where you are till you go above 150. Only one time could I see how many other people were bidding and we were 141. So there’s always more than 150 people [above you].

Some of the households struggled to find somewhere on their income, as they

had to leave their home at a time when their income was reduced. Being a

single parent with young children made it hard for people to work full time, or

increase their hours, whilst others were on maternity leave, heavily pregnant

or had a child under six months.

“ I went to (advice provider) they said the only option was to work more. But I was working 52 hours a week and I was already six months pregnant so there was nothing else I could really do.

However in the main people were simply managing long-term on a low income,

often despite being in work: two thirds of the households we interviewed

were working at the time of being made homeless.

A limited pool of options due to landlords not accepting people on

housing benefit

Even if people could find somewhere they could afford, they then faced a

second barrier in persuading the landlord or letting agent to rent it to them.

The main barrier was landlords not accommodating households who needed

housing benefit to pay their rent. This included people who were working.

This meant that even when people could find somewhere affordable to

rent, they would be turned away. One woman found a few places that she


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could afford. However landlords would not accept her using housing benefit

to pay the rent.

This was even a major issue for people who had been offered advice from

the council to find somewhere else to live when they first approached them.

“ I was given a four page A4 booklet that had lists of estate agents and landlords in it and I called over hundred different people. My phone bill went up to £120 from calling them. And they ALL said, ‘no DSS, no children’

This narrowed families’ choices even further. There was often stiff competition

from other households in similar circumstances for the few homes that were

both affordable and open to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.

Landlord unwilling to be complicit in housing people in poor

accommodation

There was also evidence that some landlords were unprepared to let to

families if it would leave them in conditions they felt would be unsuitable or

unaffordable, on the basis that it would be bad for the children or the family

and they weren’t prepared to put them in this situation. Even though this

might be done with good intentions, it further removes agency from families

and pushes them deeper into difficult circumstances by restricting their

housing options.

“ I found one place that was perfect, but he said no way – you can’t afford that. I’m not going to be responsible for leaving you with so little money.

This was also the case with forms of affordable housing:

“ I called a teachers’ housing association and I phoned them and they said my application wasn’t accepted because they only had two bedroom properties available. He said because of the age of my children they shouldn’t be sharing a room.

This had left the family staying longer in a one bedroom flat that was two

hours from the father’s work, and one and a half hours from the children’s

school.


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Secondary barriers to finding an alternative home

Upfront costs

The need to provide a deposit and up to two months’ rent up front was also

mentioned as a major barrier to finding an alternative home. A deposit of six

weeks plus the first month’s rent was a large amount of money that people

struggled to pull together. Credit checks, agency fees and other expenses

connected with moving all mounted up. People made homeless due to an

AST ending had their original deposit locked up in their previous flat. Another

barrier was that going through an eviction process could be expensive. Even

when people got their deposit returned, it was minus the cost of court fees.

People made homeless rapidly (for example due to a relationship

breakdown) were more likely to describe costs as a barrier. People made

homeless when family or friends were unable to accommodate them had

longer on average to look for alternative accommodation, and some had

managed to save for a deposit, to get the deposit back from previous homes,

and to arrange for someone to act as a guarantor.

Perceived discrimination

A small number of households described experiences of discrimination. The

main reasons people felt they had been discriminated against were because they

were single parents, or because they were on housing benefit. In other words, they

were passed over for higher earning tenants.

There is evidence that the introduction of ‘right to rent’ rules may be

making landlords less certain about renting to people who are from visible

minorities, although only one household in our sample felt that they were

discriminated against because of their ethnicity.

A few people mentioned that landlords did not want to let to families.

This was often explicitly mentioned in an advert, or by an agent. Other people

viewed a property and were subsequently told that they wouldn’t accept

children.

“ One place that was advertised, which was right by my son’s school said ‘we do not accept children’. I was like, ‘really?’ It was perfect – it was way over my budget but I would have made it work, I just wouldn’t have eaten but…

Availability of somewhere to stay while you continue to search for a

home

Family and friends was a place that many people would go to

first when they lost their home, but this sample shows that this is

not an option available to everyone. Typically, people’s parents were living

elsewhere, were elderly or had support needs themselves, or were in small

rented accommodation and/or were already housing younger family members.


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Most households had taken other steps to put off being homeless, but

these were often unsuitable and unsustainable. In addition to households

who had stayed with family or friends, four households mentioned re-

entering relationships, some of which were formerly abusive, in order to find

somewhere to stay. Seven mentioned paying for a hotel.

How difficult is it for low income families to find a home in England today?

We went ‘undercover’ to experience what it would be like to try and find housing in different areas of

England. We searched for homes on property and letting agency websites. We looked for homes in

Manchester, Luton and the three London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge – an area

referred to below as North East London.

We contacted them posing as a single mother with one child working part-time and claiming housing

benefit. We looked for a home that would accommodate them adequately (a home with two or more

bedrooms) that they could afford on housing benefit.

Our investigation showed how hard it is for low income families to find somewhere to live. After

searching every week for one month we identified one suitable property in London and two in Luton.

Neither were still available when we enquired with the agent.

We repeated this exercise in Manchester and identified twenty suitable properties. Five were still

available but three were not prepared to take someone using housing benefit. The two remaining options

required payment of more than £1,600 in deposits, rent upfront, and fees, and also requested a guarantor

who was a British citizen, earning at least £14,700 per year and in full time employment, a high bar for a

family on a low income.


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Approaching the council for help

The final part of becoming recognised and recorded as homeless is to

approach the council. We asked people how they knew to approach the

council for help, what kind of help they were seeking and why they were still

not able to avoid becoming homeless at this late stage.


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Approaching the council for help

People approached the council for help after being directed there by family,

by their landlord or because they were aware that the council provided help

with housing from previously accessing their services to register for social

housing or claim housing benefits.

What sort of help were people looking for?

In the main people went to the council for help to rent a home from the council

or a housing association, but some people said they went for help to access

the private rented sector. Five people explicitly said that they approached

the council to see if they could receive additional support to rent something

privately. One person specified that they approached their council as their

landlord told them the council could help them with a deposit for a new home.

Very few people knew anything about the support that was available and

any rights to support they had. As people approached the council looking for

assistance finding a new home, rather than to get a particular decision about

their homelessness, they often said they found the council’s instructions

surprising. A common experience was to be directed to the council by an

eviction letter, only to be told that there was nothing they could do to help,

until they had been forcefully removed by the bailiffs. Being instructed to wait

for the bailiff seemed like a strange instruction when there was a pressing

need.

“ They said: no one will help you until you’ve been physically evicted. Wait for the bailiffs. You won’t get any help till the bailiffs have come.

What impact did this have on people?

Some people received advice and support to try and prevent them becoming

homeless. this was welcome, if ultimately unsuccessful this time. In some

cases, had upfront advice and support been offered this might have helped

people more than having to wait longer for more substantial support later.

Sometimes the process threw people’s lives into chaos. An example of this

was when one person went to the council to find out if it was legal for their

landlord to put up their rent. They were advised, then directed, by the council

to instruct the landlord to issue eviction papers. This ensured that the council

took a homelessness application from them, but tipped a family into the

complexities of the statutory system when it might have been possible – and

simpler – for the council to help them enter into an agreement with their

landlord.


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Didn’t receive the help they expected

One woman described being advised to approach the council as they might

be able to give her some help. She was unnerved to find that her visit resulted

in her being placed in a hostel:

“ The landlord said, I’ll give you a letter, go to the council they might be able to give you some money for a deposit or like bond or something. I went along and I explained, how he was kicking me out. They told me to wait to be removed so I came back and they sent me here (hostel two hours outside London).

When people were initially turned away by the council or discouraged from

seeking immediate help, it meant that people were in a state of acute need

when they later returned. This left very limited time to find appropriate help

for them.

Felt that there were limited actions that the council could take

Some councils did try to help people earlier. And obviously the people in our

sample were people for whom, at least the final time, prevention was not

successful. Prevention included trying to negotiate with the landlord to let

people stay longer or provide lists of landlords for them to try. This assistance

was helpful and positively received.

However the actions that were or could be taken (in these cases) were

limited. People didn’t feel they were offered much more than they were finding

themselves. The barriers they were coming up against were the same, even

with council help. For example, people provided with a list of landlords to

call found that none would accommodate them. We know that councils are

doing a lot to assist people. These experiences show how difficult it is for the

council to act

Were discouraged from meaningful action

People who were told that they couldn’t be helped until they were evicted

found this advice confusing. In some cases it led to people possibly not

helping themselves:

“ When I got the letter for the eviction I went straight to my local authority and I asked them. I showed them the papers and everything... The letter came in February with the eviction date the beginning of April. I went to the council and they said there’s nothing we can do until the day of the eviction. At that point, I went back and started packing. I just presumed I would have been helped.


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Actions were led by fears of losing children into care

People were also discouraged out of fear that they would do the wrong thing

and end up destitute. In particular, something that dominated decision-

making at this point was the overwhelming fear that homelessness would

lead to children being taken into care. The idea of homelessness, no matter

how daunting, was only a fraction as terrifying as the thought of their children

being taken away from them. Having to seek help for this from the authorities,

often at the same place as the office where social services are based, was

a frightening event. This fear was also borne out of, and compounded by,

councils regularly telling people that they may not have a duty to house them,

just their children.

People were worried that if they didn’t do exactly what the council

said they wouldn’t just be left with nothing, they would lose their children

too. People were very keen to be seen to follow instructions and be seen to

cooperate. People were afraid to challenge decisions. And it could also mean

that people were afraid to help themselves.

“ I approached the council and they said don’t leave stay there or you will be found intentionally homeless and we won’t help you. And of course for me it was scary because I didn’t know if I should just stay put. I was trying to protect my children.

“ I was really shy and timid and embarrassed about things. But also, I think my biggest fear from the beginning was like just the whole system. Like all I was worried about was my baby being taken off me. Like I just thought that if I told anyone I was homeless in the street then they’ll…that’s it.


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In conclusion

In conclusion, it appears that people made homeless due to problems with

their housing are undercounted in the homelessness statistics. Our interviews

emphasise the extent to which it is not just the trigger of losing a home that

leads to homelessness, it is the inability to access a new home. Therefore, in

order to understand the causes of homelessness, it is critical to understand

the barriers that people face accessing a new home. Our interviews with

homeless people, and our attempts to find a home to rent in three areas of

England show that people on low incomes and people in need of housing

benefit have very few options available to them to do this. Many people seek

support from family and friends before they go to the council. The support

provided by the council is highly valued by people worried that they are

facing destitution. However, there is evidence that some actions designed

to encourage people to help themselves can actually frustrate people trying

to do this. The antagonistic experience of seeking help could be preventing

people from coming forward. These experiences are particularly important to

consider during a period when homelessness support is under review.


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What is causing homelessness to rise?

The early 2000s saw a sustained and steep decline in the number of

homelessness acceptances across England. This was followed by a total

reversal of this trend in 2010. Almost all of this rise is due to the growth in the

numbers of people made homeless due to the end of their assured shorthold

tenancy (AST). On first glance, it would appear that something seismic must

have happened to explain this.

Building on our research to examine how housing and homelessness

has changed over time, we now look at what this can tell us about what

causes homelessness. We looked at what happened in 2009, what changes

were building, but not breaking before this, and what has happened to make

the ending of a tenancy in the private rented sector become the principal

route into homelessness. In order to look at this in detail, we looked across

the homelessness system itself, the labour market, the housing market and

the welfare system to identify what changes have been made, and what may

have contributed to the rising levels of homelessness we are now facing.

Context

The first part of the noughties were characterised by high and rising house

prices, high and stable migration and a benign period of high and stable

economic growth. The Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08 shocked economies

across the world. In the UK, it led to the deepest recession since the 1930s.

At first glance, it looks likely that many factors linked to homelessness

could have been caused by this, and the ripples it set off in the labour and

housing markets. We explore these below. It also came after changes to

the homeless safety net itself. This was also a time of government spending

reductions, particularly within the welfare budget, and specifically on

housing benefit for private renters45. Of course, while one or two changes

can trigger a structural break, the context in which this break happens can

be established long before.


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Policy changes

As established earlier in the report, homelessness dropped from 2003 to

2009. The steep drop off in homelessness acceptances came immediately

following the introduction of homelessness prevention services through

The Homelessness Act 2002. It appears that this was the biggest singular

reason for the decline in recorded homelessness over subsequent years.

Modelling by Bramley et al. (2010) estimates that prevention activities alone

reduced homelessness acceptances by 48%46. We don’t have data on these

prevention activities before 2009. These activities may have been made

harder by cuts to local authority budgets. However, prevention was still in

place at this time, and that the use of prevention measures was actually

increasing across England.

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

All help provided to house households Help provided to house other households Help provided to house households that are homeless and in priority need

2015201420132012201120102009

Other households data missing from 'all help provided'

200820072006200520042003200220012000

Help provided by local authorities to house households facing homelessness

Statutory homelessness acceptances increased after 2009, despite some

households in need being helped via prevention policies which were firmly in

place. This suggests that it was something other than changes in policy and

practice that explain this change.


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Changes in the labour market

We might expect unemployment to lead to rises in the number of households

struggling with housing costs. This appeared to be the case in the eighties.

And following the Financial Crisis, the increase in homelessness acceptances

followed a sharp rise in unemployment. Unemployment rose by one million

between 2009 and 2011. This happened alongside an increase in annual

homelessness acceptances of almost 7,000 households47. Regions that saw

the largest percentage increases in unemployment from 2008 to 2009 (the

West Midlands and Yorkshire) were also two of the four regions of England that

saw homelessness acceptances rise by over 20% between 2009 and 2010.

Unemployment and homelessness have never had a clear relationship.

And this has never been more so than in the last five years. Increasing

unemployment might have contributed to an increase in homelessness

following 2009. But it is difficult to argue that it has directly helped to sustain

the growth in homeless acceptances seen in the last five years. From 2011

onwards, unemployment steadily declined, falling below 5% in 2016, while

homeless acceptances have continued to grow. In fact unemployment is

lowest in some of the areas where homelessness is highest. This also fits

with the fact that many people made homeless are in work.

Other labour market changes have occurred during this period.

Following 2011 the numbers of self-employed people grew more than twice

as fast as the number of people in employment overall. It is difficult to know

if this has had a direct impact but the increase in part-time work and self-

employment could make more households less secure48,49. However, both

part-time work and self-employment also increased from the turn of the

century until the Global Financial Crisis, a period during which the levels of

homelessness within England dropped substantially. While there is economic

logic to the argument that changes within the labour market could affect

households’ ability to house themselves, it seems that something else may

also be responsible for the structural break seen around 2010.


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Changes in the housing market

Instead, we look to the housing market to understand what could have

influenced levels of homelessness in the last seven years.

Changes in the private rented sector

The growth of the private rented sector

One factor that could explain rises in homelessness is the growth of the

private rented sector. The private rented sector has grown steadily since the

1980s. As the main trigger of homelessness is the ending of a private tenancy,

levels of homelessness clearly relate to the size of the private rented sector.

Increases in homelessness acceptances following 2009 cannot be fully

explained by the growth in private renting. The rise in private renting pre-

dated 2010 by decades and didn’t always lead to rises in homelessness50.

In addition, the increase in people becoming homeless due to the ending

of a private rented tenancy over the last seven years (136%) is much

greater than the rise in the number of renters (40%)51. Despite seeing

the biggest increase in figures showing the end of an AST as a trigger of

homelessness, the private rented sector in London actually grew at a slower

rate than across the rest of the country. Something else is also feeding the

rise in homelessness we are seeing.

Changes in the kinds of households renting from a private landlord

Some of this could be explained by changes in who is living in a home rented

by a private landlord, as well as the overall number of households. In the last

decade, there has been increases in the number of private renters who are on

low-to middle income52 or who are families with dependent children53. These

households may be more vulnerable to changes in income or would find it

harder to find somewhere else to live if their tenancy ends. This changing

composition appears to be a part of the story.

Rents rising faster than working people can keep up

The private rented sector is also becoming a less affordable place to live. Five

years ago, rents and earnings across England increased at a similar rate54.

From 2011 they started to diverge. This has been even more pronounced in

London (see figure X and Y).


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80

100

120

England – Mean Earnings England – Rents

2016201520142013201220112010200920082007

Index of England Rents v Mean Earnings

90

120

150

London - Mean Earnings London - Rents

2016201520142013201220112010200920082007

Index of London Rents v Mean Earnings

Rents have not raced away from earnings across all of the country however.

Perhaps tellingly, the areas where homelessness caused by the end of an

AST have increased the least, the North East and North West, saw the

opposite pattern. In the North East earnings grew by 10% between 2011 and

2016, while rents grew by 3%. In the North West, earnings grew by 8%,

outstripping rental growth of 4%.


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The wider housing market: More demand for rented homes, but even less supply

What happens in the private rented sector is also influenced by the wider

housing market. A number of issues have arisen that could have explain the

increase in homelessness.

High house prices creating more demand for rented homes.

High house prices have reduced the number of households that are able to

buy a home. These households are predominantly moving into the private

rented sector, increasing demand for rented housing. This has been happening

for years55. The number of homeowners buying with a mortgage started to

decline in 199656 but this is happening even more following the financial crisis

of 2008. Households affected by high house prices may themselves not be

predominantly at risk of becoming homeless. But their presence may affect

renters on lower incomes by increasing demand in the private rented sector.

Recent analysis from the Bank of England found that an inability for

people to borrow enough to access homeownership was the primary driver

of tenant demand for private rented housing between 2008 and 2013. They

explain over four fifths of demand for the private rented sector, far outstripping

demographic change, migration or reduced provision of social housing57,58.

In rental markets such as London and parts of the South-East, where

there are not enough homes to begin with, extra competition for homes leads

to someone missing out. As Rugg and Rhodes (2008) foretold in their study

of the private rented sector before this period, when this happens it is people

on low incomes or in need of benefits who lose out.

“ Landlords in (the housing benefit sub-market) may be more likely to look to leave this part of the market and serve other demand groups where they become available59.

A return to house price growth leading to incentives to landlords to sell

their homes

Despite a restriction in credit, a combination of policy intervention, historic

lack of housing supply, and the eventual return to economic growth have

resulted in a return to rapidly increasing house prices in several regions.

English house prices are now 21% above their late 2007 peak, with London

and the South East particularly affected60.

As well as making things harder for first-time buyers and increasing

demand in the private rented sector, increasing prices could induce landlords

to evict tenants to bank increases in the capital value of their properties.

The English Housing Survey picks up that this is happening to around

100,000 tenants a year61. This is consistent with new analysis, which

shows that the number of no-fault tenant evictions fell when house prices


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fell62, but rose once house prices started rising again63. This evidence tallies

with what we learned from families made homeless. Many reported that their

landlord told them they wanted to evict them so they could sell in order to

gain from the capital value uplift of their properties.

It is unclear to what extent no-fault tenant evictions involve households

who are subsequently accepted as homeless. However, the number of

possession claims issued by landlords in a given area is very strongly positively

correlated with the number of homeless acceptances in a given area. The

evidence outlined above appears to suggest that house price increases, and

the incentives they provide, may have led to greater churn within the private

rented sector in recent years, which could lead to more households being put

at risk of homelessness.

Declining numbers of genuinely affordable homes

The back drop to all of this is the decline in the number of genuinely affordable

stable homes. After decades of large-scale social housebuilding between the

1950s and 1970s, the number of social homes in England went into reverse

in the 1980s. By 2009, there were 1.5 million fewer homes available for social

rent.64

The lack of social homes with low rents not linked to the market meant

that as structural pressure built in private rental markets following the Global

Financial Crisis, the ability of councils to resolve households’ homelessness

on a longer term basis was diminished. Far more people on low incomes

were at the whim of the market, rather than in a relatively stable tenure that is

less affected by the economic cycle65.


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Changes to the safety net

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the main type of housing benefit provided

to people living in the private rented sector. This was introduced across

the country from 200866 and it sets a maximum on the amount that people

could claim based on average rents in a local area. It is unclear whether its

introduction initially impacted upon the reversal of homelessness acceptances.

But a House of Commons evaluation at the time did not highlight any adverse

effects67. In 2011, LHA was limited to the 30th percentile of rents in each

area and no longer uprated to match rents. At the time, academics at the

Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR) warned that

tens of thousands of households would encounter severe difficulty in meeting

their rent payments.68

A key aim of introducing the new 2011 LHA rates was that the reductions

would result in lower rent levels being set by landlords. However, in the main

this did not occur. The DWP’s evaluation of the policy found that:

“ 89 per cent of the incidence of reduced LHA entitlements was on tenants and 11 per cent on landlords.69

The impact of the policy differed across the country. The DWP’s evaluation of

the policy found that, ‘in many areas outside London, the new LHA processes

had been incorporated into the wider PRS without too many problems’.70

Conversely, in London:

“ A greater proportion of landlords were seeking to reduce lets to LHA tenants, were planning to get out of the LHA sub-market altogether in the future, and over a quarter... said they had taken actions (non-renewal or cessation of a tenancy, or eviction) against tenants specifically because of the effects of the LHA reforms. Furthermore, 39 per cent of Inner London landlords said that since April 2011 there had been an increase in tenants moving because they could no longer afford the rent..71

Looking at the number of households made homeless due to the ending of an

AST across the country shows the impact of these changes. At the point

these changes were brought in (April 2011) there was an acceleration in

homelessness acceptances in areas particularly affected by the changes

straight away (predominantly London boroughs). In the eight quarters from

the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2011, the average quarter-on-

quarter increase in the ending of AST as a reason for the loss of settled

accommodation within London was 8%; in the eight quarters following the


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introduction of the new rates, the quarter-on-quarter increase was 19%.

Cuts to LHA came slightly after the point at which the overall rate of

homelessness started to increase (2009/10). This suggests that other changes

were putting people at risk of homelessness before this change was made.

However, cutting housing benefit removed an important element that

was insulating households against the shocks to the housing market. It is likely

that changes to housing benefit led to the rapid increase in homelessness

caused, predominantly, by people evicted by a private landlord in London.

They also add to why London households have become more prominent both

within figures on the ending of an AST, and overall homeless acceptances

over the period. In the first quarter of 2009 London households made up 27%

of all homelessness acceptances triggered by the ending of an AST – by the

first quarter of 2016 they counted for 44%.

In conclusion

In conclusion, the reasons behind the reversal of the downward trend in

homelessness acceptances in 2009 seem to be dominated by problems

within our housing market that were further uncovered after the Global

Financial Crisis, and when the support that families could draw on to insulate

them from these issues was withdrawn in some areas.


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Conclusion to section two

There is now a general consensus that becoming homeless is caused by

‘structural’ factors (like housing) creating the conditions within which

homelessness occurs, and then, ‘individual’ factors determining the likelihood

of becoming homeless in those conditions. Our analysis suggests that in

some areas of the country, structural factors are making more and more

groups vulnerable to homelessness. In areas where homelessness is high,

some private renters struggling with housing costs are on above average

incomes.

This study suggests that a person’s housing circumstances (rather

than their personal circumstances) is the root cause of homelessness for

the great majority of households made homeless. People made homeless

due to the ending of an AST were sometimes stretched before they were

made homeless but in the main, they were coping and settled before they

were evicted. Even people made homeless because family and friends were

unwilling or unable to accommodate them mainly had their homelessness

caused by housing issues prior to that. Often they also had to then leave

their temporary arrangement with family or friends due to housing issues too.

For example the family and/or friends had to move, or the homes people

were staying in were too small for the people already there or for the new

household to stay there long term.

Critically, our interviews emphasise the extent to which it is not just the

trigger of losing a home that leads to homelessness, it is the inability to access

a new home. Therefore, in order to understand the causes of homelessness, it

is critical to understand the barriers that people face accessing a new home.

The main barriers that people faced were related to not being able to find a

home that was affordable on a low income, or a landlord that would accept

housing benefit.

The support provided by the council can frustrate people trying to

help themselves. We found that families are ultimately focused on ensuring

they can stay together as a family, and this means that people will try to do

everything to follow instructions. After being told by the council that they

could not get help until they are physically evicted (by family or by a landlord)

and that if they leave before this they might void their entitlement to support,

some people interpreted this to mean that they would definitely get help

eventually. This made them averse to finding an alternative place to stay in

case they fell foul of the instructions they had been given. This could be

preventing people from coming forward for help and from seeking alternative

solutions. The influence that the threat of being found ‘intentionally homeless’

has on people’s actions is particularly important to consider during a period

when homelessness support is under review.

The reasons behind the reversal of the downward trend in homelessness

acceptances in 2009 are also housing related. The private sector is growing,

and also becoming home to more households who may be less resilient


84


to shocks. For the last five years, rents have grown faster than earnings in

London and the south of England. Following the shock to the UK economy

of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/8, and the resultant unemployment

and credit constraints, the private rented sector has faced increased

demand. At the same time, the support that families can draw on to bridge

that gap has been falling away. The removal of support appears to have left

increasing numbers of households exposed, and unable to avoid tumbling

between the gaps.


85


Conclusion: Our housing crisis is causing homelessness, and we need radical action to address this


86


Shelter was founded in the midst of a housing crisis but our early successes

showed that governments, individuals and charities working together can

improving housing conditions and reduce homelessness.

50 years on we are facing a new housing crisis. Homelessness is again

rising, predominantly caused by the ending of a private tenancy and affecting

low income families and those facing disadvantage in the housing market72.

Homelessness is high and rising

Across England we estimate that at a minimum a quarter of a million people

are homeless today. In some areas homelessness is shockingly common.

In some areas, one in every fifty people are homeless. Progress in reducing

homelessness throughout the noughties has now been firmly reversed, and

councils are forced to respond by rehousing people close to the edge of

suitability. The recent increases in rough sleeping are intolerable.

Much homelessness occurs under the radar. Thousands of families are

relying on informal support and even with legislative protection, even children

can slip through the net and be forced to sleep rough.

Homeless is caused by our dysfunctional housing market

England’s dysfunctional housing market is driving up homelessness. Official

figures show that the single leading cause of homelessness is insecure private

rented housing. Our research shows that this understates the true impact of

housing pressures, with many people first relying on informal safety nets after

the market has let them down.

Our research shows that the housing market is an increasingly hostile

environment in which to find a home. People who have sustained a tenancy

without issue can become homeless only because they are unable to find

a new home they can afford when forced to move. Barriers include high

rents, landlord and letting agent aversion to housing benefit, deposits, rent in

advance and use of guarantors.

Unsurprisingly homelessness is rising most in areas where housing is

expensive. And as housing costs rise, families on average, and even above

average, incomes find themselves exposed to the risk of homelessness.

Dysfunction has been decades in the making

Short-term pressures have undoubtedly come in the form of cuts to housing

benefit and rising rents in the wake of the financial downturn.

But many of the structural causes were decades in the making. Supply

of affordable homes has reduced since the 1970s. Successive governments

failed to build sufficient homes to meet demand, particularly low cost

alternatives to guard against rising housing costs.

This has meant more and more low income families are reliant on

expensive private renting. Pressure for private rents has been exacerbated

by a growing number of young households priced out of homeownership.

With rents rising, more households have become reliant on housing benefit,


87


even when in work.

For years housing benefit acted as a lynch pin holding the market

together. Indeed, the supply of affordable housing was reduced with the

explicit assumption that housing benefit would take the strain of housing

families. But housing benefit cuts in 2011 quickly led to a rise in homelessness.

This has been most pronounced in London, where the deepest cuts were

matched by soaring homelessness.

The safety net at breaking point

England has strong legislative protection for homeless families and vulnerable

adults. This means that the pressures of rising homelessness are also felt by

councils, who have a duty to rehouse groups in priority need. Councils in

London, the South East, and in major cities across the country are finding it

much harder to help homeless families. In response they are forced to move

people out of their area, away from support networks, or into poorer quality

accommodation. The slums have gone, but homeless people are living in

ways comparable to the worst housing in the sixties.

In turn, councils are seen as a last resort by people due to a fear of being

humiliated, judged, and turned away. Households instead rely on informal

networks of support, which could fail to provide long-term solutions, or worse

leave them vulnerable to having to rely on ex-partners or exploitative contacts.

What will happen in the future?

We expect homelessness to continue to rise and the pressures seen in London

to spread across the rest of the country. Recent rises in homelessness are the

result of long-term pressures from policy decisions and the wider environment,

exacerbated by short-term changes. Our homelessness crisis stems from a

lack of genuinely affordable, accessible options. This is putting pressure on

council homelessness services and limiting their ability to rehouse people.

The drivers of homelessness are expected to worsen. There is currently

no comprehensive programme to increase the supply of genuinely affordable

homes. Moreover, councils are still expected to sell off higher value council

homes to fund the extension of right to buy to housing associations, two

policies that combined will further deplete stock. Alongside this, the size of the

private rented sector is predicted to grow further over the next two decades73.

Cuts to housing benefit will continue to exacerbate affordability

pressures. Local Housing Allowance is frozen until 2020. This will worsen

affordability across the country. By 2020 families in four-fifths of the country

could see a gap between the support they need to pay their rent and the

maximum support they can get. The lower overall benefit cap will also

reduce affordability for families unable to work. Areas in the South East that

are already reeling from high house prices and extra pressure from families

looking to move out of London may see families particularly struggle to cope.


88


Legislating for reduced homelessness?

The legal protections for homeless households are largely the same today

as they were after 1977. This is about to change with the Homelessness

Reduction Bill. But will this meet its aim of reducing homelessness?

The bill is laudable in its aims to shift the focus to prevention and

improve support for non-priority need single people. But by itself it is not a

sufficient response to the pressures facing homeless households.

The rise in statutory homelessness indicates that councils’ ability to

prevent and relieve homelessness is running out of road, as the progress

made by housing options in the noughties goes into reverse. The number

of successful prevention actions has been falling, and they have reduced

furthest in areas of high housing pressure such as London. Many local

authorities appear to be struggling to use the powers they already have.

Without access to genuinely affordable, stable options councils will struggle

to assist households.


89


What is needed?

Homelessness is not inevitable – it can and should be prevented. But

growing housing market unaffordability, the reduction in social rented homes,

restrictions to housing benefit, and cuts to housing support have undermined

local attempts to prevent homelessness.

Make prevention work

Genuine prevention would begin to work with families as soon as it became

apparent that they could lose their home. Sadly, insecure expensive private

housing options are the norm for an increasing number of families. Local

authority assistance has to be ready to work with households to navigate

an increasingly hostile and precarious market. The culture within local

authorities has to change, working with families collaboratively rather

than viewing them as demands on a finite resource.

Make prevention possible

Without an increase in the availability of suitable housing in the areas where

homelessness is most prevalent, changes to legislation may have little overall

impact. In order to tackle homelessness we must address the housing issues

at the heart of the problem.

There is an urgent need to increase supply of homes of all tenures.

This will ease pressure on the overheated private rented sector. But most

importantly these must be homes people can afford; we estimate half

must be affordable, including intermediate products like shared ownership.

Most importantly, the Government must commit to supporting low rent

homes, delivered by either councils or housing associations, to ensure that

households on low to average incomes can afford to house themselves. And

at a time of such acute shortage the Government must reconsider plans to

sell off the genuinely affordable homes the country does have.

Affordability can also be improved via housing benefit. The freeze to LHA

is untenable and the Government must take action now to ensure support

reflects actual rents. London demonstrates the consequences of drifting too

far from the market in an experiment that will have costly consequences if

replicated across the country.

Instability in the private rented sector is a leading cause of homelessness

and the time has come to modernize the tenure. The legal frameworks are

ill-matched to the demographics of today’s private renters. Families must

be able to access stable rental contracts, giving them security of tenure for

five years and protection against unaffordable rent increases. This would

dramatically improve stability in the private rented sector and recognise the

needs of the growing number of renting families.


90

Endnotes1 Fitzpatrick, S., 2005, ‘Explaining homelessness: a critical realist perspective’ Housing,

Theory and Society, vol. 22, no. 1 10.1080/14036090510034563

2 This methodology is derived from a range of similar studies including: Makiwane, M., Tamasane, T., and Schneider, M., 2010, ‘Homeless individuals, families and communities: The societal origins of homelessness’, Development Southern Africa, vol. 27, no. 1.

Morrell-Bellai T, Goering P & Boydell K 2000 ‘Becoming and remaining homeless: a qualitative investigation’, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, vol 21, no 6, 581

3 We uncovered this figure through requests for data from all relevant local authorities in England under the Freedom of Information Act.

4 DCLG, Statutory homelessness and prevention and relief live tables: April to June 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

5 Ibid.; See also University of Oxford Centre on Migration Policy and Society, 2015, Safeguarding from destitution: Local authority responses to families with ‘no recourse to public funds’ https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/media/PR-2015-No_Recourse_Public_Funds_LAs.pdf

6 Homeless Link, 2015, Support for single homeless people in England: Annual Review 2015, http://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Full%20report%20-%20Single%20homelessness%20support%20in%20England%202015.pdf

7 DCLG, Rough sleeping in England: Autumn 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics#rough-sleeping

8 DCLG, Detailed local authority level homelessness figures: April to June 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

9 Hackney Community Law Centre, 2015 A Place to Call Home http://www.hclc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/A-Place-To-Call-Home-Electronic-Report1.pdf

10 This is anticipated to be much more common than more visible forms of rough sleeping. For example, a survey of people accessing day centres for homeless people found that two thirds were living like this (Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, 2011, The hidden truth about homelessness: Experiences of single homelessness in England http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/HiddenTruthAboutHomelessness_web.pdf)

11 DCLG, Rough sleeping in England: Autumn 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics#rough-sleeping

12 Fitzpatrick. S., Pawson, H., Bramley, G., Wilcox., S and Watts, B., 2015, The homelessness monitor: England: 2015 http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Homelessness_Monitor_England_2015_final_web.pdf; It was estimated that there are 2.35 million concealed households ‘additional family/single units’ of which 273,000 were couples or lone parents. This calculation uses the English Housing Survey (EHS), Understanding Society Survey (USS) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

13 IPPR North, 2014 Not Home: The lives of hidden homeless households in unsupported temporary accommodation in England http://www.ippr.org/files/publications/pdf/not-home_Dec2014.pdf?noredirect=1

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14036090510034563

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness


https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/media/PR-2015-No_Recourse_Public_Funds_LAs.pdf

https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/media/PR-2015-No_Recourse_Public_Funds_LAs.pdf

http://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Full%20report%20-%20Single%20homelessness%20support%20in%20England%202015.pdf



https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics#rough-sleeping



http://www.hclc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/A-Place-To-Call-Home-Electronic-Report1.pdf

http://www.hclc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/A-Place-To-Call-Home-Electronic-Report1.pdf

http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/HiddenTruthAboutHomelessness_web.pdf

http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/HiddenTruthAboutHomelessness_web.pdf



http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Homelessness_Monitor_England_2015_final_web.pdf


http://www.ippr.org/files/publications/pdf/not-home_Dec2014.pdf?noredirect=1

http://www.ippr.org/files/publications/pdf/not-home_Dec2014.pdf?noredirect=1


91

14 New Policy Institute, 2014 Monitoring poverty and social exclusion https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/monitoring-poverty-and-social-exclusion-2004

15 This is based on data that is no longer collected. New Philanthropy Capital, 2008, Lost Property: Tackling homelessness in the UK – a guide for donors and users http://www.thinknpc.org/publications/lostproperty/lost-property-full/?post-parent=4979; DCLG, Estimated total number of houses in multiple occupation in area https://data.gov.uk/dataset/estimated-total-number-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-in-area


17 Ibid.

18 Greater London Authority, Rough sleeping in London (CHAIN reports) https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports/resource/ffb9d285-ce68-4a93-bce8-f6f58e1d4f47; Rough sleeping in London (CHAIN reports) https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports/resource/176b07d9-f512-4d64-9126-90dfc702fdc4

19 Fitzpatrick. S., Pawson, H., Bramley, G., Wilcox., S and Watts, B., 2015, The homelessness monitor: England: 2015 http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Homelessness_Monitor_England_2015_final_web.pdf; DCLG, Detailed local authority level homelessness figures: April to June 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

20 YouGov (2016) survey of 8,325 people in England. Including 2,500 families. All data is weighted for the wider population.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Fitzpatrick, S., 2005, ‘Explaining homelessness: a critical realist perspective’ Housing, Theory and Society, vol. 22, no. 1 10.1080/14036090510034563

24 Byrne, T., Munley, E.A., Fargo, J.D., Montgomery, A.E., and Culhane, D.P., ‘New perspectives on community-level determinants of homelessness’ Journal of Urban Affairs vol. 35 no. 5. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00643.x/abstract


26 Analysis was conducted using a Pearson Product Moment Correlation. All results given are statistically significant (p<0.05) unless otherwise stated.

27 Measured by the number of households found to be homeless and in priority need in a local authority.

28 DCLG, English Indices of Deprivation 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015

29 Ibid.

30 YouGov (2016) survey of 8,325 people in England. Including 2,500 families. All data is weighted for the wider population.

31 DWP, Households below Average Income https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-19941995-to-20132014 41 per cent of single parent families live below the poverty line. This compares to 24 per cent of couple families.

32 ONS, Families in the Labour Market 2014 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_388440.pdf)

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/monitoring-poverty-and-social-exclusion-2004

http://www.thinknpc.org/publications/lostproperty/lost-property-full/?post-parent=4979

http://www.thinknpc.org/publications/lostproperty/lost-property-full/?post-parent=4979

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/estimated-total-number-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-in-area

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/estimated-total-number-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-in-area



https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports/resource/ffb9d285-ce68-4a93-bce8-f6f58e1d4f47



https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports/resource/176b07d9-f512-4d64-9126-90dfc702fdc4

https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports/resource/176b07d9-f512-4d64-9126-90dfc702fdc4





http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00643.x/abstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00643.x/abstract

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-19941995-to-20132014

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-19941995-to-20132014

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http:/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_388440.pdf

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http:/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_388440.pdf


92

Single parent families are more likely to have no parent in work because there are fewer adults in these families to balance the requirement for earning income and providing childcare.

33 Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, 2014, Were we really all in it together? The distributional effects of the UK Coalition government’s tax-benefit policy changes http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/spcc/WP10.pdf; Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2015 The effect of the coalition’s tax and benefit changes on household incomes and work incentives http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN159.pdf

34 DWP, 2016, Benefit cap: number of households capped to February 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-february-2016 Two thirds (66%) of households currently hit by the benefit cap are single parent families.

35 Comres (2014) survey of 2,011 young people aged between 16 and 25 in the UK Data were weighted to be representative of all young people in the UK aged between 16 and 25 by age, gender and region. http://www.comresglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Centrepoint___Hidden_Homelessness_Poll.pdf; Respondents were asked Thinking about ‘sofa surfing’ (where individuals stay with friends or members of their extended family on their floor or sofa as they have nowhere else to go), do you have any personal experience of doing this? 21% had done this in the last year. 35% had done this at some point and 41% had known a friend or family member, aged between 16-25 who had done this in the last year.

36 Human City Institute, 2016, Forty Years of Struggle: A Window on Race and Housing, Disadvantage and Exclusion https://bmenational.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/forty-years-of-struggle-a-window-on-race-and-housing-disadvantage-and-exclusion1.pdf

37 DCLG, Detailed local authority level homelessness figures: April to June 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

38 DWP Stat-Xplore https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/; Freedom of Information Requests.

39 Johnson, G., and Chamberlain, C., 2008, ‘Homelessness and Substance Abuse: Which Comes First?’, Australian Social Work, vol. 61 no.4, 342-356. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233885377_Homelessness_and_Substance_Abuse_Which_Comes_First

40 Menke, E. M., and Wagner, J. D., ‘The health of homeless mothers and their children’ in S. L. Feetham, S. B. Meister, J. M. Bell, & C. L. Gilliss (eds.), 1993, The nursing of families: Theory, research, education, practice Newbury Park, CA:Sage. Menke and Wagner identified lack of social support systems as a key factor that separates those families who remain housed despite serious poverty from those who become homeless.

41 The analysis presented supports the notion that private renters in London, are more at risk of homelessness. We used a method developed by Bramley et al. (Bramley, G., 2012. ‘Affordability, poverty and housing need: triangulating measures and standards’ Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, vol. 27 no.2, pp.133-151. DOI: 10.1007/s10901-011-9255-4 ) in order to explore why London has a greater proportion of households whose personal situation means that they are more vulnerable. For example, a greater number were unable to work due to poor health. Another is that the high cost of housing in London is making people that work struggle more; DWP, Family Resources Survey https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200017



http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/spcc/WP10.pdf

http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN159.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-february-2016

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-february-2016

http://www.comresglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Centrepoint___Hidden_Homelessness_Poll.pdf

http://www.comresglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Centrepoint___Hidden_Homelessness_Poll.pdf

https://bmenational.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/forty-years-of-struggle-a-window-on-race-and-housing-disadvantage-and-exclusion1.pdf

https://bmenational.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/forty-years-of-struggle-a-window-on-race-and-housing-disadvantage-and-exclusion1.pdf


https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233885377_Homelessness_and_Substance_Abuse_Which_Comes_First

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233885377_Homelessness_and_Substance_Abuse_Which_Comes_First

https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200017

https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200017



http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14036090510034563


93

44 The other two cases were younger, had never previously left home and were made homeless after disagreements with their parents.

45 DWP, 2012, Housing Benefit: Size Criteria for People Renting in the Social Rented Sector https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220154/eia-social-sector-housing-under-occupation-wr2011.pdf The introduction of the ‘Under Occupancy Penalty’ or ‘bedroom tax’ reduced the support received by 660,000 social renters.

46 Bramley G., Pawson H., White M., Watkins D. and Pleace N., 2010, Estimating Housing Demand https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimating-housing-need

47 ONS, Labour Force Survey https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsc/unem

48 ONS, Contracts that do not guarantee a minimum number of hours: March 2016 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/march2016

49 Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2015, Green Budget https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/gb/gb2015/ch2_gb2015.pdf

50 ONS, English Housing Survey 2014/15 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey The number of private renters grew by 58.0% between 2003/4 and 2008/9. Over the same period, homelessness acceptances and in particular, the proportion triggered by the ending of an AST, fell substantially.

51 ONS English Housing Survey 2014/15 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey The number of private renters grew by 39.5% between 2008/09 and 2014/15.

52 Centre on Household and Savings Management, 2013, Some key trends in the private rented sector in England: Analysis of Census http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/CHASM/briefing-papers/2013/trends-private-rented-sector.pdf; Resolution Foundation, 2016, Hanging on: the stresses and strains of Britain’s ‘just managing’ families http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/hanging-on-the-stresses-and-strains-of-britains-just-managing-families/

53 ONS, English Housing Survey 2014/15 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey

54 Index constructed using ONS Index of Private Housing Rental Prices in Great Britain http://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/indexofprivatehousingrentalprices/previousReleases Value in 2009 = 100.

55 Bank Underground, 2016, ‘The ballad of the landlord and the loan’ https://bankunderground.co.uk/2016/07/15/the-ballad-of-the-landlord-and-the-loan/

56 ONS, English Housing Survey 2014/15 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey

57 Financial Times, 16th January 2006 ‘Self-Certification Mortgages’ https://www.ft.com/content/d8d988e4-4c8f-11da-89df-0000779e2340

58 Financial Standards Authority, Mortgage Lending and Administration Return (MLAR) statistics http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140110164234/http://www.fsa.gov.uk/library/other_publications/statistics/future

59 Rugg, J., and Rhodes, D., 2008, The private rented sector: its contribution and potential https://www.york.ac.uk/media/chp/documents/2008/prsreviewweb.pdf

60 ONS, House Price Index: August 2016 http://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220154/eia-social-sector-housing-under-occupation-wr2011.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220154/eia-social-sector-housing-under-occupation-wr2011.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimating-housing-need

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimating-housing-need

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsc/unem

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsc/unem

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/march2016



https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/gb/gb2015/ch2_gb2015.pdf

https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/gb/gb2015/ch2_gb2015.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey




http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/CHASM/briefing-papers/2013/trends-private-rented-sector.pdf



http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/hanging-on-the-stresses-and-strains-of-britains-just-managing-families/




http://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/indexofprivatehousingrentalprices/previousReleases

http://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/indexofprivatehousingrentalprices/previousReleases

https://bankunderground.co.uk/2016/07/15/the-ballad-of-the-landlord-and-the-loan/


https://www.ft.com/content/d8d988e4-4c8f-11da-89df-0000779e2340

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140110164234/http:/www.fsa.gov.uk/library/other_publications/statistics/future

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140110164234/http:/www.fsa.gov.uk/library/other_publications/statistics/future

https://www.york.ac.uk/media/chp/documents/2008/prsreviewweb.pdf

http://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/aug2016


94

inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/aug2016

61 ONS, English Housing Survey 2012/13 and 2013/14 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey

62 Generation Rent, 2016, Causes and Consequences of Eviction in Britain https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/npto/pages/4322/attachments/original/1477662310/Evictions_report_David_Adler.pdf?1477662310

63 Ministry of Justice, Mortgage and Landlord possession statistics: July to September 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-july-to-september-2016

64 ONS, England population mid-year estimates https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/timeseries/enpop/pop

65 Local Authority and Housing Act, 1989, Parts IV–VI http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/42/contents

66 House of Commons Library, 2013, The reform of Housing Benefit (Local Housing Allowance) for tenants in private rented housing http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN04957

67 Ibid.

68 Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, 2010, How will changes to Local Housing Allowance affect low-income tenants in private rented housing? http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/290041/CCHPR_final_for_web_2.pdf

69 DWP, 2014, Monitoring the impact of recent measures affecting Housing Benefit and Local Housing Allowances in the private rented sector: The response of landlords https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329901/rr870-lha-impact-of-measures-affecting-private-rented-sector-response-of-landlords.pdf

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid.

72 Greve, J., Page, D., and Greve, S., 1971, Homelessness in London Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press

73 Intermediate Mortgage Lenders Association, 2014, Reshaping housing tenure in the UK: the role of buy-to-let http://www.imla.org.uk/perch/resources/imla-reshaping-housing-tenure-in-the-uk-the-role-of-buy-to-let-may-2014.pdf

http://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/aug2016


https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/npto/pages/4322/attachments/original/1477662310/Evictions_report_David_Adler.pdf?1477662310

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/npto/pages/4322/attachments/original/1477662310/Evictions_report_David_Adler.pdf?1477662310

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-july-to-september-2016

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-july-to-september-2016

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/timeseries/enpop/pop



http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/42/contents

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN04957

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN04957

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/290041/CCHPR_final_for_web_2.pdf

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/290041/CCHPR_final_for_web_2.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329901/rr870-lha-impact-of-measures-affecting-private-rented-sector-response-of-landlords.pdf



http://www.imla.org.uk/perch/resources/imla-reshaping-housing-tenure-in-the-uk-the-role-of-buy-to-let-may-2014.pdf

http://www.imla.org.uk/perch/resources/imla-reshaping-housing-tenure-in-the-uk-the-role-of-buy-to-let-may-2014.pdf


95

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