The Government will fail to meet its target to end rough sleeping by the end of 2024 because of a ‘chronic shortage’ of affordable housing and support services, homelessness experts have warned.
The report from the Kerslake Commission on homelessness and rough sleeping said that homelessness is on the rise because of a ‘severe shortage’ in affordable housing, a lack of statutory support services, and the cost-of-living crisis.
The latest national figures show a 26% increase in rough sleeping and over 100,000 households in temporary accommodation – the highest rates of people living in temporary accommodation in the UK on record.
Established to learn the lessons from Everyone In, the scheme for providing homeless people with emergency accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Kerslake Commission said the Government should fix Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates at the 30th percentile of local rents.
The report also said that the Universal Credit standard allowance should be set by an independent process which guarantees the cost of essentials, and that Shared Ownership and Affordable Rent developments should be topped up with grant funding to transfer them into social rent.
The commission recommended that the next administration aim to build 90,000 social rented homes a year.
Responding to the report, Cllr Shaun Davies, chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) said: ‘As this report recommends, we need to prevent people from reaching crisis point in the first place, alongside providing tailored support for those who are already homeless.
‘Local Housing Allowance rates should also be urgently reviewed to ensure that at least a third of the market is affordable for people claiming housing related benefits, alongside adequate resources for councils’ homelessness services and a cross-departmental homelessness prevention strategy.’
Cllr Davies also said councils should be given the powers and resources to build 100,000 social homes a year.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) spokesperson said: ‘We remain focused on ending rough sleeping for good and are spending £2bn to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the areas that need it most.
‘We are making significant progress with over 640,000 households prevented from becoming homeless or supported into settled accommodation since 2018.’
If this story was of interest, then check out our feature, 'How councils can avoid unnecessary housing placement endings'.
