Reblogged
from the void:
The number of families accepted as homeless by London
local authorities has rocketed by 26% compared to the same period a year
earlier.
4,230 households – almost all with children – were owed a main homelessness
duty between April and June of this year. These are families who councils have
accepted they have a legal duty to help and only represent the tip of the
iceberg. Thousands more single people, families judged intentionally homeless,
or those refused help for not meeting strict criteria, are also facing life
without a home in the capital.
This huge rise came after the Government introduced a Benefit Cap for
families at £500 a week in some parts of London from April this year. Whilst
this is unlikely to affect many households in Scotland, Northern England or
Wales, it has made much of the capital, and surrounding areas, unaffordable to
families on benefits due to soaring rents.
This is reflected in the figures. In London the main reason given for the
loss of a settled home was the ending of an Assured Short Term tenancy,
representing 1,450 households who became homeless in the period. This is a
staggering rise of 78% on a year earlier showing that the very worst predictions
about the Benefit Cap – which could see over 200,000 children made homeless –
are already starting to appear.
And this really is just the beginning. The Benefit Cap had only been rolled
out in four London boroughs during the period which these figures represent.
Some families have been protected by Discretionary Housing Payments – money set
aside by Councils intended for the most vulnerable and which is only a temporary
measure. Even those families who did not receive this support may have clung
onto their homes for a couples of months and not yet had to apply to the council
for emergency help.
The Benefit Cap is currently being rolled out across the rest of London and
the UK. This comes along with the Bedroom Tax – a measure which will not see a
spike in homelessness immediately as Housing Benefits are gradually chipped away
at and some of the poorest households in the country fall deeper and deeper into
arrears. Almost all of those evictions are still to come and 600,000 people are
set to be affected.
On top of this the Benefit Uprating Bill means that Housing Benefits are to
be cut from next year whatever happens to rents. Rules already introduced which
mean those under 35 are now only entitled to a room in a shared house are also
having an impact as there aren’t enough rooms in shared houses to go round.
This measure has – according
to a report published by the DWP themselves – led to some landlords stopping
renting to anyone under the age of 35 in case they lose their jobs and can no
longer pay the rent.
Homelessness across the UK rose by 5% in the last year, a still alarming
figures. But as tens of thousands of people are socially cleansed from the
South East pressure on housing elsewhere will start to mount and rents are
likely to rise everywhere. The upcoming Treasury created house price bubble is
also likely to impact on rents whilst spending on building social housing
(remember that?) is being cut to the bone.
It is impossible to predict how bad homelessness is going to get. But savage
cuts to housing benefits, cuts to social housing, soaring rents and one of the
least regulated private rental sectors in the world could lead to a truly
terrifying future for millions of low income households in insecure and
expensive private rented accommodation. Very soon losing your job in many parts
of the UK is likely to mean losing your home. And there are no cheaper homes to
go to. A dramatic failure of free market housing policies led to the crisis
which saw rents sky-rocket and Housing Benefits take up much of the slack. Now
those benefits are being stripped away, and rents are still soaring. The
biggest housing crisis to hit the UK in generations could be just around the
corner and not a single MP, from any of the main three parties, seems to give a
flying fuck.
The latest homelessness figures can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-homelessness-in-england-april-to-june-2013