100,000 children will be homeless this Christmas

100,000 children will be homeless this Christmas. Thankfully, you won’t see them on the streets. Councils have a duty to find children that have nowhere to live somewhere to sleep.

But increasingly, councils are forced to place more and more homeless families into the most insecure and inappropriate emergency accommodation. This can be anything from cramped bed and breakfasts to hostels; places where families might have no cooking facilities. They could be squashed into a single room, and sharing a bathroom with dozens of strangers. This is no place for a child.

What will Christmas be like this year?

Imagine trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. You know that instead of dreaming about Father Christmas, your children are staring at the ceiling. They’re kept awake by families in other rooms shouting or banging doors. Or it might even be drunken residents fighting outside your window.

Imagine cooking Christmas dinner in a microwave balanced on your one chest of drawers. The only place to sit and eat it is the bed in your single room. Then, spending the afternoon walking around in the cold – the hostel is closed for cleaning.

This is the reality faced by a growing number of families in Britain. Today, we’re publishing new research based on the experiences of twenty homeless families living in emergency accommodation. They shared their fears about the impact of homelessness on their children – from bed-wetting and constant crying, to self-harm. We heard their concerns that their children are falling behind at school, left exhausted by broken sleep and long school runs.

One parent even takes a different bus into town now, because the old route upset her children when it ran by their old home.

On top of this, these families worry about what their children see each day. This includes fighting, drug use, and strangers invading their room at night. It left some mums made homeless after fleeing domestic violence wondering if they’d done the right thing by leaving, given the impact on their children.

‘My six year old has been going to the doctors because he’s developed a nervous tick since we’ve been in that room. He’s really anxious. He’s become violent to his little sister and he was never like that before…. It’s so upsetting to watch the way he’s changed.’ (S, 30, Mum)

Make no mistake. They might be out of sight, but these children bear the brunt of Britain’s housing crisis. But you can do something to help – help give them the security they deserve.

Why are there homeless children?

Councils do their best. But we don’t have enough affordable housing. We’re only building half the homes we need each year, while the number of genuinely affordable homes falls.

Combined with growing house prices, the shortage of affordable homes pushes more families into the private rented sector. It’s unstable. The single leading cause of homelessness is the end of private tenancies. There’s nothing in law that stops landlords asking families to leave come the end of their short-term fixed tenancy. It doesn’t matter if they’ve always paid their rent on time, been in that home for years, and been model tenants. And if they can’t find anywhere else affordable then many have no choice but to turn to the council for help.

What makes it all harder is growing rent costs – combined with cuts to social security. They’ve removed the safety net that many low-income families need to cover costs. And even if they can pay rent each month, it’s often impossible to find thousands of pounds for a deposit and rent in advance. That’s often what it takes to set up a new home when a tenancy ends.

‘[Our] landlord wanted to sell the flat we were privately renting and we couldn’t afford another £2,500 (for a deposit) to rent again, we just didn’t have the money. I work but I don’t earn that much.’ (D, 21, Mum)

What struck many of the families we interviewed was how sudden homelessness can be – that’s why your donations are so important. Their lives were turned upside down when their tenancies ended. The struggle to find new homes left them in temporary accommodation, relying on friends and family to store their possessions. All the while, they had to protect their children from the situation. One parent said:

‘Your whole life crumbles around you.  Your whole world. You’re worried about your children.  I was worried about everything.  I can’t put into words, because there aren’t any words.  Shock, disbelief, terror.  Everything, it is your worst nightmare come true – someone coming in and locking your front door so you can’t go back in there. Seeing your child sobbing.’ – (S, 45, Mum)

What can fix this?

The situation won’t improve until we address Britain’s affordable homes shortage. The government must build thousands more truly affordable, stable for families on low and average incomes. This must include low-cost homes for rent.

We need more stability within the private rented sector – helping families raise their children in secure homes. And a safety net that works, so that losing your job or a rise in rent doesn’t mean losing your home. We must ensure funding for local authorities is enough to provide suitable temporary accommodation for families when the worst happens.

But first, we must reach these 100,000 children facing homelessness this Christmas.

This is what Shelter advisers do day in, day out. Our expert legal advisers work directly with homeless families to try and stop them ever becoming homeless in the first place. Our help can literally make the difference between a family losing their home or not.

If the worst happens, we fight so they can find and settle into a safe, secure  place to live… Somewhere they can start their life again. As one parent told us:

‘I just felt ill the whole time I was there. My family kept saying ‘you look really sick.’ It was only when Shelter helped me that I felt remotely better.’ (S, 30, Mum)

But as the number of homeless children grows, so does the need for our services. This is why we’re launching an emergency appeal today.

100,000 children shouldn’t be homeless – let alone at Christmas.

We’re fighting to make sure they aren’t. Please give generously.

8 Comments
  1. …And we still have open door immigration – madness!

  2. If you’re not already aware, AMRP offers a hassle-free Relocation service for those wishing to move to the North East of England. Whether they have family in the area, need to move for work, are struggling to find a pet friendly landlord, or if there’s simply no available housing in their current area, we can help.

    Our simple process is supported by a dedicated Relocations Team, and all applicants are referenced free of charge by Durham County Council. We guarantee to offer a home to all successful applicants that is fully covered by their Local Housing Allowance (subject to being entitled to the One Bedroom Rate) without any top-up to pay.

    For more information, we’ve put together a video that outlines how the service works. It’s really useful to show to service users who might be struggling to find affordable housing. You can watch it on our YouTube Channel here:

    https://youtu.be/mBn8j5VWlOo

    If you’d like to chat about how our relocation service works, please give us a call on 0191 640 4604,

    visit http://www.amrp.co.uk/relocate

    or email relocations@amrp.co.uk

  3. I’m disappointed you have not included a couple of practical things we can do about this.
    I appreciate this is part of your fundraising campaign BUT we don’t all have cash to spare, especially with the cuts and pay freezes we’ve been hit by since 2008.
    I can imagine anyone reading this will want to DO SOMETHING.
    I think Shelter has a responsibility to support everyone to act too. Shelter alone isn’t going to stop homelessness, people supported by the resources of Shelter will.
    Please add a couple of actions that will make a difference. Thanks

    1. Hi Miriam –

      Thanks for commenting. There’s loads you can do. You might want to sign our petition here: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/homelesschildren?petition that calls on George Osbourne to commit to providing funding so we can build the affordable homes we need to address homelessness..

      If you sign and tick: ‘Keep me updated on Shelter’s work’ we can also let you know about future opportunities to help Shelter’s campaigns team ensure our message is heard nationally – from meeting MPs to helping on street stalls to sharing your story.

      Another way you can help is by sharing the blog with friends and family through facebook, twitter or email. It really helps when people read things that are recommended to them by friends. You might want to encourage them to sign our petition too?

      You may also be interested in this new article written by Catharine, another researcher. This goes into more detail about the experiences of teachers: http://blog.shelter.org.uk/2015/11/thats-when-i-first-realised-and-i-no-longer-assume-children-have-beds/

      Thanks – look forward to campaigning alongside you.

  4. Wish shelter actually helped. I met a young man today whom had just been to the shelter and got told there was nothing they could do. Come back and try again tomorrow. We’re is he going to be tonight? If I never had a 14 year’s old son. Knowing what he has to face. Saying I was on the streets for 13 year’s I’d of gave him my couch

  5. I would like to offer xmas day to a few homeless children please could you let me know more information

  6. I would like to help and foster a child. There are some issues. I am a single parent of two teenagers. I have a son and a daughter who think it would be nice to help a child but we only have three bedrooms and I am back to work in the new year. I could arrange to have internal work done to create a comfy bedroom which I would take but not sure when this would be done. If after my safety checks I could even have children to enjoy Christmas meals but. Just think it would be nice to help but I fear I do not fit the criteria.

  7. When we approached shelter we were told to phone the council. They offered nothing. Good luck to the homeless children then.

Comments are closed.