The number of homeless people in the UK this Christmas has been revealed

Nearly 40,000 more people in the UK are expected to spend this Christmas homeless than last year, a sign that England’s housing emergency is spiraling out of control, according to a shelter charity.

The number of people spending the festive season in B&Bs and other temporary accommodation increased by 14%, according to official figures and Freedom of Information requests.

According to The Guardian, a combination of factors is widely believed to be undermining the UK’s ability to adequately house its entire population. Housing benefit rates have been frozen for four years despite record rent increases by private landlords. The number of households requiring council help due to actual or threatened homelessness has risen six times the number of new social homes built, and the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in even more families being forced into crisis.

The charity’s analysis shows that rough sleeping increased by 26% last year, with 140,000 children living in temporary homes and 20,000 in hostels or supported housing.

Polly Neate, chief executive of one shelter, said 309,000 people will spend the holiday season this year “in a tiny dorm room or freezing in a doorway.” She states: “It is appalling that the government has allowed thousands of families to cram into damp and dirty bed and breakfasts and hostels, traumatizing children and making people desperately ill.”

The Department of Improvements, Housing and Communities said it was spending £2bn to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping conditions and added: “Temporary housing is an important way to make sure no family is left homeless, but councils must ensure that it is temporary and suitable for families who have the right to appeal if it does not meet the needs of their family.”

Last month, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that housing benefit would be increased from April 2024 to better match actual rents. While 178,000 new homes were built last year, the most since 1989, it was well below the more than 300,000 widely considered needed each year. A ban on “no-fault” evictions, first promised by the government in April 2019, has been postponed indefinitely.

Christmas could be bleak for affected families, The Guardian writes. This week, one group of homeless people posted photos of their holiday meals from years past, including a can of cold baked beans they ate with a wooden supermarket fork and a package of tinned mincemeat.

“Going through it was the worst experience of my entire life,” says Teresa, who was homeless in Bournemouth for more than a year with her four children, aged between five and 18. She lived a stable life in a rented bungalow that was “supposed to be my forever home,” but then lost her job at a bingo hall during the pandemic and was evicted after a dispute with her landlord.

For nine months, the family lived in a single hotel room while their children did their homework in the toilet. They are now in temporary accommodation provided by the council. “If they don’t build more houses, people will be in this situation for a long time,” Teresa said.

According to The Guardian, Emma and her sons, aged seven and 17, were left homeless in November in Clitheroe, Lancashire, following a no-fault Section 21 eviction. The 44-year-old had to split up her family because proposed temporary housing required them all to sleep in the same bed.

“It looks like a prison cell,” the woman says. “Recently, the shower didn’t work for 10 days, and we had to use cold water in the bathroom sink to wash ourselves, or the shared bathroom downstairs, sharing it with strangers. It’s so frustrating. I feel like I let my children down, even though it’s not my fault.”