EXPERTS have warned of the long-term damage being inflicted on children in temporary accommodation, as numbers reach the highest on record and funding shrinks.

A staggering 131,370 homeless children were forced to live in temporary accommodation — including B&Bs — in England at the end of March, according to government figures.

The Champions project — a collaboration between University College London and De Montfort University — has been examining the psychological impact that living in temporary accommodation can have on under-5s.

Dr Nadia Svirydzenka, a psychologist with the project, called temporary accommodation a “misnomer” when many families find themselves homeless for years — “for children under five, almost the entirety of their life.”

She warned: “If you grow up with a sense of ‘I’m not safe, we move a lot, this isn’t my space,’ it threatens that sense of belonging that we need for our well-being, for our mental health.

“And that can create anxiety around when we go about the world because our fundamental sense of stability is threatened.”

This damaging instability for those experiencing homelessness is mirrored in the funding of the services which should support them, according to the annual report of a national charity representing front-line homelessness services.

Homeless Link say beds in the sector have fallen by a fifth over the last decade to 33,093, not because demand has fallen, but as a result of consistent cuts to funding.

Its research shows that 24 per cent of accommodation providers have seen a reduction in funding since 2021, and 56 power cent have seen a freeze — a real-terms cut — despite rough-sleeping growing by 26 per cent in England last year alone.

Homeless Link’s Rick Henderson said shrinking resources as demand and complexity of need grows “leads to the alarming conclusion that we will not be able to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in our society unless urgent action is taken.

“The government must refocus its efforts on preventing homelessness: providing more social housing and raising the local housing allowance rate so that people on low incomes have a more realistic chance of finding somewhere affordable to live.

“And we need a commitment to sufficient, sustainable funding of the services that offer a lifeline to people who do fall through the gaps and find themselves without a place to call home.” 

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was contacted for comment.