The Homeless Crisis, how did we get to this?

Homeless Crisis – what is happening and what it is

In the UK successive governments have made public or social housing a priority since 1924 when the Addison Act made it a major part of governments responsibilities. Over the years this has developed into an extensive program and depending on funding how long the wait or availability of the “Council Flat” would be determined the numbers who were homeless. Social homes are an important part of the national housing story. Around 3.9 million households, approximately 9 million people, live in the social rented sector in England, just under a fifth of all households

What does homeless mean, it is a complex situation and yes it does include the people we see sleeping rough in the street, but it also includes individuals and families who are very reliant on social housing for somewhere to call home. Going back to 1997, the Labour government conducted an extensive inquiry into housing homeless people and social housing (2002 report Coming In From the Cold). This culminated in the Homelessness Act 2002 that tackled the root causes of homelessness. The policy direction included dealing with causes such as;

Low Pay – 57% of those in poverty are living in a house where someone is in paid work but does not earn enough to cover living expenses

Low levels of house building – 227,000 new households are required to be constructed a year, however construction is falling short of this figure.

Welfare reform – Universal Credit, amongst other reforms, has had a major effect on people able to gain stable, paid accommodation.

The Blair governments strategy worked well for the first few years, it was adequately funded and the results showed that homeless numbers were falling from a peak in 2003/4 of 135,000 to a low of 40,020 in 2009/10.

In the back ground to this however property in the UK was increasing in value rapidly due to the economic boom, particularly in Greater London, which resulted in rents increasing and this lead to a knock on effect of affordability. Those that could afford comfortable accommodation at an average price were being squeezed down to lower quality properties as rents increased. The result of this was that for those who could just afford to keep a roof over their heads were being forced into social housing that had been in decline since the 1980’s. Then in 2007/8 the Global Financial Crisis hit resulting in the UK government having to slash budgets as austerity griped the UK in order to prevent a financial collapse.

Unfortunately those that were most vulnerable felt the largest impact of budget cuts so from the lows 2009/10, homelessness rocketed up to over 250,000 in 2016.

The UK government has now realised that this is an embarrassing situation, how can a country that is abundantly wealth have such a large population of homeless people?

The UK Government is fixing the Problem

The UK government realising the massive problem that it now has on its hands has set aside millions of pounds to solve the problem which includes funds for temporary housing, funds for social housing and social programs that help people climb out of the poverty cycle so they become more self reliant. A variety of programs have large funding including £754 million between April 2016 and March 2020 to fund housing development and along with temporary housing to give everyone the opportunity to have a place to call home.

References

“History of Council Housing”. University of the West of England. 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2019.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733605/A_new_deal_for_social_housing_web_accessible.pdf

http://www.socialvalueuk.org/why-is-the-uk-facing-a-homeless-crisis-and-what-can-be-done/

Statutory Homelessness in England  Wendy Wilson & Cassie Barton House of Commons Library No 01164 Oct 2019

The Act in Action by Anna Dudleston, Carys Alty, Kirsty Henthorne, NFO Social Research January 2004