‘They throw you away like garbage:’ The homeless families being told to move up to 230 miles away by councils

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1. Article contents:

   *INVESTIGATIONExclusive data obtained by i shows that over 21,000 homeless households from London boroughs were placed in out-of-area temporary accommodation in the first quarter of 2023 alone.*

   *By Vicky Spratt, Housing Correspondent, August 25, 2023 12:01 pm(Updated 12:10 pm)*

   In 42-year-old single parent Stacey-Anne McDonald’s end-of-terrace house, there is hardly any furniture, and very few toys for her two young children to play with. “We were told we had to come here with just a few hours’ notice,” she says, holding her 7-month-old baby, “and we could be asked to leave again any time.” Stacey’s other daughter, who is 4 years old, runs around asking questions. “She’s been anxious since we moved here,” Stacey explains.

   Care worker Stacey and her family have been made homeless. They were evicted by a private landlord via a Section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction notice in February this year just as she gave birth. This sort of eviction allows landlords to evict their tenants at short notice without having to give them a reason. It’s a leading cause of homelessness in England and Wales.

   “Here” is temporary accommodation in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire where they were forced to move – 63 miles, two hours’ drive or four hours total journey by train – away from her home area, her job in Peckham, her family, and her eldest daughter’s school – by their local council, the London Borough of Lewisham.

   If she had said no, Stacey would have made herself “intentionally homeless” according to a piece of legislation called the 1996 Housing Act and forfeited all rights to state support.

   “It feels like they just toss you somewhere and forget about you,” Stacey said, sitting on a sofa in the bare living room of her interim home.

   “Lewisham council said I had to take this property, or they would discharge their responsibility to me,” she continued. “I felt very stressed, like I had no choice but to come here or I would be on the street with my kids. I felt distraught. My head was spinning, I didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t get through to anyone at the council on the phone. Nobody answered.”

   Stacey’s story is not unique. She is just one of tens of thousands of households who are being “exported” by local authorities to other areas because they have no permanent social housing for them. This is because local councils are “running out” of temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness according to new research from the homelessness charity Crisis; 97% of councils told the charity that they are struggling to source private rentals or affordable housing to support people.

   Housing people who are experiencing homelessness outside of their local area, as Stacey’s council has done, is also known as an out-of-area placement. The displacement caused by this practice can have drastic effects on the health and wellbeing of the people impacted, particularly women.

   As Dr Kesia Reeve of Sheffield Hallam University who has been a dedicated housing researcher for over 20 years has noted out-of-area placements isolate women “from crucial support networks” and leave them feeling “punished, blamed, and abandoned, rather than protected and supported by the services, policies and legislation designed to help them”.

   Stacey doesn’t drive so she can’t commute back to Peckham by car for work, to see her family, who used to help with childcare, or her partner, the father of her children who also used to help “a lot” with children.

   “If I had something to do – like a job interview or errands – my partner would look after the children so I could do it. “But now, because of the distance we can only talk on the phone,” Stacey says. “He doesn’t drive either. He works seven days a week as a street sweeper – it’s very difficult and expensive for him to make the journey.”

   The cost of an adult single ticket from Peckham to Hemel Hempstead is £22.50.

   Stacey’s family has been broken apart by her out-of-area placement.

   “I haven’t heard from my council support worker since he gave me the address of this house in Hemel Hempstead,” Stacey adds. “It feels like they throw you away like garbage.”

2. There’s a council estate near me that houses roughly 300 families. These are due to be pulled down in the next couple of years to make way for private new builds. Where all these families end up being relocated to, nobody knows.

3. I don’t really think social housing tenants should be entitled to live where they choose, especially not in the most expensive parts of the country.

   I had to leave London because I couldn’t afford it but households who are not working at all (half of London council houses have nobody in work at all) get a £3k a month flat for free ?

4. The rot started with Thatcher selling off social housing and then continued with the tories refusing to allow councils to build more, bastards the lot of them.