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Crisis urges government to launch central unit to tackle homelessness
Ministers have been called on to launch a centralised government unit to tackle homelessness to ensure a “co-ordinated approach” to the problem.
Homelessness charity Crisis made the plea after new official figures revealed that 512,000 households across the private and social rent sectors have experienced homelessness in the past few years.
Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said: “The next 100 days is the perfect opportunity for the new Westminster government to start to make inroads on its manifesto commitments.”
He added: “Establishing a ‘Unit for Ending Homelessness’, backed by the prime minister and sitting at the heart of government, would ensure a co-ordinated approach that is desperately needed if we are to enact change and build a future free from homelessness.”
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Crisis pointed to figures from the English Housing Survey, published late last week, showing that 319,000 households of renters in social housing (8%) said they experienced homelessness in the past few years.
In the private rented sector, 193,000 households (4%) said they experienced homelessness in the past few years.
Crisis was also among more than 50 organisations, including the National Housing Federation, that last month called on the next government to take “urgent action” to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson told Inside Housing: “We will develop a long-term, cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils to end homelessness for good.
“At the same time, we will prevent homelessness before it occurs, by banning Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, and deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation.”
Figures published last October showed that the number of households in England who became homeless or were at risk of homelessness increased 6.8% on the previous year.
Last week’s King’s Speech included a Renters’ Rights Bill, which will outlaw Section 21. The previous government had promised to ban no-fault evictions, but delays to proposed legislation led to frustration among campaigners.
The wide-ranging Renters’ Rights Bill confirms many of Labour’s previous pledges for the private rented sector (PRS).
Awaab’s Law – named after the two-year-old who died from mould exposure in his family’s housing association-owned flat – will be extended to the private sector.
The Decent Homes Standard will also be extended to the PRS to tackle the “blight of poor-quality homes”.
Plans to introduce an ombudsman for the PRS are also included in the bill. The bill promises that the service will provide a “quicker, cheaper resolution when there are disputes” between private landlords and tenants.
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