New research has revealed there could be over 50,000 people staying in unsupported temporary accommodation - nearly 10 times more than the official statistics show.
The homelessness charity Justlife sent freedom of information (FOIs) requests to 326 local authorities in England to find out how many private tenants were claiming housing benefit from B&Bs between 2010/11 and 2015/16.
Justlife’s study used B&B as a ‘measurable proxy’ for all unsupported temporary accommodation, which also includes short-stay HMOs, private hostels, emergency accommodation and guesthouses.
The charity discovered that in 2015/16 there were 20,290 claimants, whereas the Government’s figures showed the average quarterly B&B placements for that year was 5870.
Based on these figures, the researchers have estimated that in all likelihood the B&B population in 2015/16 was upwards of 51,500 - nearly 10 times more than the Government acknowledges.
Justlife recommended that people living in unsupported temporary accommodation are included in formal definitions of homelessness, particularly as there is a close relationship between this type of accommodation and ‘rough sleeping.’
‘We need to recognise the close relationship between UTA and more commonly recognised forms of homelessness in our attempts to address homelessness in England through policy, legislation or best practice, because there are far more hidden homeless households living in UTA than most of us in England are aware,’ the report states.
