262,430 children aged under 10 including 20,000 babies in England live in temporary housing for the homeless
by marketrent
262,430 children aged under 10 including 20,000 babies in England live in temporary housing for the homeless
by marketrent
15 comments
Excerpts:
• Nearly 20,000 babies aged under one are living in temporary accommodation in England, new government figures have shown in what Labour called “a damning indictment” of ministerial failures over housing.
• The [statistics](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/age-breakdowns-of-children-under-10-in-temporary-accommodation-30-june-2023), a one-off additional release to existing homelessness figures, showed that on 30 June in 2023, when the snapshot was taken, 262,430 children aged under 10 were in temporary accommodation.
• This total included 846 pregnant women, nearly 9,000 infants aged between one and two, and about 8,200 aged two to three.
• Figures released late in 2023 showed that 105,750 households were in temporary accommodation, defined as housing secured by a council under statutory homelessness duties, which can include short-term rental homes as well as hotels and B&Bs.
• This was a 10.5% rise from the same date a year before, but for households with children the increase was steeper at 13.8%.
• [An] [investigation](https://www.itv.com/news/2024-03-04/exclusive-55-homeless-children-have-died-in-temporary-accommodation-since-2019) into child deaths found that living in temporary accommodation was a factor in the unexpected deaths of 55 children between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2023, with 42 under a year old.
This makes me feel really sad – I can only assume that this will get worse given our current direction of travel as a country.
Just awful 😢 really worry about the future for younger people
It’s deliberate policy of the Selfservative Government; the cruelty is the point. They stopped pretending to care a long time ago.
It’s almost as if making it illegal to use money from council house sales to build more homes is a bad idea. Who could guess that a country that’s constantly growing would need more houses.
Up to 262’430 young mostly single women have had children they knew full well they couldn’t afford and are now burdening the taxpayer with raising their child.
Having a child you aren’t fit to raise guarantees an immediate spot in social housing or a housing program while we leave young vulnerable mentally Ill men on multi year waitlists.
The logical outcome of RTB, BTL and not building any houses for 40 years whilst the population grows.
It didn’t and doesn’t have to be that way.
In other words, 20,000 single mothers have recently escaped a domestic violence household.
With 234,000 over ten years, seems there will be another 20,000 next year.
Those kids should just work harder..
What an absolute failure of a country we are. Will never understand why so many people defend the status quo like their lives depend on it.
Further context on the conditions these families are living in:
Temporary accomadation may be unstable due to contract limitations which means some may be moved multiple times.
Temporary accomadation cannot be guaranteed in any particular location, is given at a moments notice and cannot be refused, which can result in children being uprooted and moved across the country without notice. This can happen multiple times and is especially damaging for children in school. You will have social services involvement at this time and will still be expected to get your child to any specialist appointments no matter where they may be, and you likely will not be given help with this. 4 hour one way journey costing over £100 in train tickets? Tough shit.
Disabilities often cannot be accomadated in temporary accomadation. Me and my child lived in 4 different units while homeless, we are both physically disabled and require ground floor accomadation. Only one of the units was ever suitable. We are *lucky* in that we are not paralysed and can still at least drag ourselves up and down stairs. Not everyone is so lucky.
The conditions in some units are frankly awful. Damp, mould, cold and waking up covered in spiders became normal for us. One unit we stayed in did not meet fire safety standards and there was no effort to fix the issue. Flea infestations were common in units we lived in and the council was really struggling to keep on top of it.
Some units come *completely unfurnished*. Ones intended for *homeless people*. Imagine having nothing to your name and being dumped in a cold flat with your child with nothing to prepare or store food, and nothing to sleep on but a cold tiled floor. Funding for furniture in these situations now takes 12 weeks in my area. I was lucky to have been placed near my family for our unfurnished unit who dropped everything to find us some blow up mattresses and got us some takeout. What if you’ve been moved across the country? What if your disabilities mean you can’t leave the unit? What do you do then?
Not surprising when the government has flooded the country with millions of immigrants that so many people are homeless.
I’m naively assuming a large part of this is people who are low/no income and don’t have a stable, long-term housing situation. If we tried to define some criteria around this for having children, it would be leaning into eugenics, “poor people can’t have children”.
But what are some actuals solutions, maybe that other countries use? If we want to say a child should never be in this situation because it’s not their fault, and provide a way out for them, it seems it would open up a pretty big exploit in which having a child may become a tool for escaping poverty.
Well refugees get to jump to the front of the waiting lists for housing so not surprising really.
This happened to me when I was younger with my mother and older sister. Lived in a mix of temporary accommodation and hotels for years till I went to university at 18. It’s terrible this is still happening 20 years later.
Exactly what the Tories want, that means all the homes, money and happiness goes to them instead. Why have a home for every baby when the ruling class can have dozens each!