It is one of the great scandals of our time. In the 6th wealthiest nation in the world, we are unable to provide permanent housing for 61,740 households with children. These statistics – the latest quarterly figures to have been released – come from the government report: Statutory Homelessness, October to December 2018, which reports detailed figures on the homelessness crisis in England.
Duties of the Local Authority
Under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, it is the duty of the local authority to find housing for the homeless. Specifically, they have these four duties:
- Prevention Duty. An effort must be made to prevent households from being made homeless in the first place.
- Relief Duty. Settled secure accommodation must be found for households that have already become homeless.
- Main Duty. If a local authority has failed in its duties of prevention and relief, a homeless household becomes subject to an LA’s main homelessness duty: to provide a safe and secure temporary home until such time as a settled home can be found for them.
- Duty to Refer. Where an individual has consented, public bodies must refer homeless service users to a local housing authority (whether or not the housing authority will take them was the subject of last week’s blog).
There is clearly a serious failing somewhere in the system. According to the government’s own data, 124,490 children are living in temporary accommodation. This data does not include the ‘hidden homeless’ – those abiding in overcrowded, insecure or unsanitary conditions who have not approached their local authority for assistance moving out.
Stretched Budgets
Local authority workers charged with meeting their obligations regarding homelessness face enormous challenges – not least a reduction in real-term housing spend of between 43% (combined average figure for southern and eastern England and the Midlands) and 84% (average figure for the North) since 2010. The housing budget still has to cover things like home improvement grants, slum clearances and landlord licences in addition to reducing homelessness.
Charitable Work
Our colleagues in the charitable sector are also working near miracles on limited budgets. Do you ever wonder what you can do to help the overstretched public and charity sectors in their work to end homelessness?
What Else Can Be Done?
We founded Kanndoo with the intention of easing social problems using the efficiencies of software development and the business world’s approach to economic problems.
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