WIREDGOV

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities yesterday released the Statutory Homelessness statistics for January to March 2022. Key statistics include: 

• Households at risk of homelessness due to a S21 eviction notice (no fault eviction) rose by 18% from the previous quarter, and 142% from the same period last year
• 74,230 households were owed a homelessness duty between January and March 2022, an 11% increase compared to the previous three months.
• This is driven by a 16% increase in households at risk of homelessness (37,260), reaching pre-pre-pandemic levels. 
• 74,230 households were assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness and owed a duty by their local authority, up 5% from the same quarter last year.  
• Households threatened with homelessness due to the end of a private rented Assured Shorthold Tenancy has nearly doubled, up 98% to 13,810 households. 
• 10,290 households were homeless, or at risk of homelessness due to landlords selling or re-letting their property, the highest number since current records began. An increase of 127% on the same period last year. 
• Overall, in 2021/22 there has been a 3% increase in people at risk of, or experiencing homelessness compared to 2020/21. 

Responding to the statistics, Rick Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, the national membership charity for frontline homelessness organisations in England, yesterday said:

“These statistics are extremely worrying and will likely only get worse without action. Inflation is rising at the fastest rate for forty years, while rents in the private rented sector have reached record levels and are still rising. We are already in the midst of a housing crisis, with a chronic lack of genuinely affordable housing. 

“But the pandemic showed homelessness is not inevitable, that, with the right political will, it is easily solvable. Whoever becomes our next Prime Minister must take decisive action to ease the pressure of the cost of living. The Government promised to abolish ‘no fault’ section 21 evictions in 2019, with these statistics showing the cost of not yet following through. Over the next parliament it must accelerate its planned reforms of the private rented sector to end ‘no fault’ evictions’  and publish a new strategy to guide its aim of ending rough sleeping for good. 

“Without a quick and evidence-based response to ease the pressures people are facing, tens of thousands more households could face homelessness in the coming months.”