A new person has called Shelter’s emergency helpline every minute in the past two months, the homelessness charity has revealed.
The figures show that almost 25,000 people in England have called the helpline in the last two months, with more than 780,000 families cutting back on food in order to pay their rent or mortgage.
Of the families that have contacted the charity since March, 65% were already homeless or at risk of homelessness and 19% needed urgent help to find temporary homeless accommodation.
The Local Government Association (LGA) called on the Government to invest more in homelessness prevention services.
’With council housing waiting lists set to potentially nearly double as a result of COVID-19, we are calling for councils to be given powers to kickstart a post-pandemic building boom of 100,000 new social homes for rent each year, including reform of Right to Buy,’ said Cllr David Renard, the LGA’s housing spokesperson.
