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Uncovering the grim reality of Britain’s hidden homeless population

The government must urgently address hidden homelessness, introducing a package of adequate welfare provisions along with landlord regulation and access to habitable, affordable housing, writes BECK ROBERTSON

HOMELESSNESS is an ongoing problem within Britain, yet the term shouldn’t solely be reserved for those forced to sleep on the streets. There’s a growing number of people who can’t afford a mortgage or exorbitant monthly rents — many aren’t eligible for housing benefit, or their allowance is inadequate, while others are on subsistence wages and forced to exist in temporary, unsafe, or inhabitable accommodation.

In desperation, some have had to turn to more creative, albeit challenging solutions — and although the media likes to glorify #vanlife and “tiny living,” staying in cars, garages, or minivans in an effort to keep off the streets is far from glamorous.    

The government doesn’t count many of these people as homeless, yet without a fixed residential address, they are under British law — and as a result they slip through the net.    

According to the National Housing Federation, around 8.4 million people in England live in unaffordable, insecure, or unsuitable homes and despite the fact these people don’t fit the idea of what a stereotypical homeless person should look like, they are subject to many of the same hurdles faced by those sleeping on the streets.

Those without a fixed address struggle to receive mail and acquire the ID needed to open a basic bank account, while those living in unsafe conditions must navigate a lack of rudimentary amenities as well as the mental and physical health hazards of unsatisfactory shelter.    

For many, homelessness still refers to someone who sleeps rough — but while this is a serious issue, there are thousands of invisible homeless that are not even registered with local authorities and so not counted in official statistics.

Many have families and hold down jobs, yet they are unable to afford exorbitant rents and are denied the opportunity for a mortgage, so they are forced to stay in dangerous or insecure temporary accommodation such as squats, converted shipping containers, cars, or hostels.

Others depend on their friends or family for shelter, crashing on sofas and sleeping on floors or in tents in the back garden in an effort to survive.    

According to the Homelessness Monitor, a study conducted by Crisis, this epidemic of hidden homelessness is increasing — temporary accommodation placements rose by 4 per cent in 2020- 2021, while the number of people placed in bed and breakfast hotels rose by 37 per cent.

Official government figures show that by 2021’s end, 121,680 children were being housed in this way — and these statistics are just the tip of the iceberg.

The pandemic has worsened the issue, with flimsy eviction protections ending when the lockdown ceased and the lockdown itself exacerbating a number of factors that placed more vulnerable people at risk, such as domestic violence victims.

While victims of domestic violence are legally entitled to support from their local housing authorities, charities like Women’s Aid state that many who flee an abusive home environment are accused of making themselves homeless intentionally and are subsequently denied housing help.    

There are a multitude of other factors contributing to the rising problem of hidden homelessness, from the social housing deficit, rising rents and stagnating wages, to family breakdown, poor health and disability.

One of the most important drivers is poverty — decades of government benefits and social services cuts along with inadequate tenant protection have pushed many out of the private housing sector entirely.

According to the charity Shelter, 120 British families lose their home daily — 28 per cent of homeless households at the greatest risk have previously been evicted from private rented accommodation.    

Housing benefit is meant to ensure claimants can gain access to adequate shelter, yet in practice, it often fails to cover weekly rents. This has been a particular issue since the 2011 reduction from 50 per cent coverage to 30 per cent, followed by the April 2021 rate freeze, which has still not been lifted and amounts to a further cut of the benefit.

This means that the cost of private rented accommodation is beyond the reach of many who are in the most need — as a consequence, the number of families in temporary accommodation in England has increased by 65 percent, since April 2011.

Another issue is stigma: despite housing benefit bans being ruled discriminatory back in 2018, many landlords are still refusing to accept tenants in receipt of benefits.    

Though the government passed the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2017, the legislation is failing millions who rely on temporary, insecure, or inadequate accommodation and it ignores the thousands who do not seek help or are denied assistance.

While official figures for rough sleeping appear to have fallen, Crisis projects that even these levels are set to rise again, despite the government’s pledge to end this form of homelessness by 2024.

Meanwhile, the numbers of people reliant on temporary accommodation have swelled dramatically — by June 2020, in London alone, 98,300 households were dependent on this type of insecure housing. The increasing numbers of hidden homeless help to artificially massage official statistics, masking a serious problem.

It’s impossible for many to get a foot on the property ladder. Often, the only alternative is to pay sky-high rents that provide no long-term property security.

Shelter estimates that approximately three million affordable homes must be built over the next two decades in order to solve this issue, yet the Conservative government is doing little to tackle the lack of affordable social housing, which has declined since Margaret Thatcher introduced the Right to Buy scheme in the 1980s.    

The consequences of homelessness are severe; housing insecurity causes stress, while unsafe accommodation poses a serious risk to personal safety, health and life.

The impact on mental health caused by continually having to worry about and seek out shelter, coupled with the physical impact from damp, toxic mould, and extreme cold due to lack of heating, leads to a host of issues, from depression, to asthma, chronic conditions, and even loss of life.   

There have been moves to tackle the epidemic of invisible homelessness — two non-profit organisations, the Shared Health Foundation and Just Life, have combined forces to set up Households in Temporary Accommodation, an all-party parliamentary group that aims to evaluate the scale of the problem and present solutions.    

Yet, as Human Rights Watch illustrated in its January 2022 report, I Want to Feel Like a Human Again, thousands of children are growing up in substandard and uninhabitable temporary accommodation, due to a series of policy failures by both central and local governments.

The watchdog stated that the current government is failing in its duty to provide adequate housing, placing families with children into accommodation which is unsafe or uninhabitable, in a serious breach of human rights.   

The population of people who are invisibly homeless is only increasing — and despite the plethora of glossy media articles exhorting the charms “tiny” living, the reality for most is an arduous daily struggle that severely impacts physical and mental health.

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