People without a home can spend as long as 36 years living in and out of often dilapidated hostels, B&Bs and refuges while waiting for help to find a permanent residence, a damning report reveals.
A system designed to aid the destitute is instead said to be abandoning those seeking stability while offering them unacceptably squalid conditions in which to live, according to a report by the IPPR thinktank.
Aiming to investigate the reality behind homelessness statistics, the report chronicles bloodstains, broken windows and even a lack of a bed or a bathroom in provisional forms of accommodation. During the three-year study of a cohort of 45 people in and out of temporary accommodation, five of those involved died.
In one case, the system failed a service user so badly that they ended up spending 36 years in such “temporary” accommodation, the report finds.
Government data shows that in the third quarter of 2016 a total of 74,630 households, including 117,520 children, were recorded as living in temporary accommodation such as women’s refuges, temporary housing association or council sites and B&Bs.
This was an increase of 9% on the same period in 2015. Almost 32,000 more children were living in this kind of accommodation than in the same quarter of 2010.
The data, published this month by the Department for Communities and Local Government, also shows 6,680 families had been placed by the local authority in bed and breakfast accommodation, which is supposed to be funded on an emergency basis while cases are examined. This was an increase of 13% on the previous year, and almost treble the number in 2010.
The IPPR report on hidden homelessness lays bare the conditions often endured by people in such accommodation, including a lack of locks on doors, hostile or greedy landlords, overcrowding, and contact with people misusing substances when others are trying to quit. One user told IPPR researchers of being covered in bites as a result of poor cleanliness of the accommodation.
The researchers say failings in the system mean that rather than using temporary accommodation as a stepping stone, users struggle to take sufficient steps towards more permanent housing, such as saving up a deposit.
Charlotte Snelling, the report’s author, said: “This time of year, minds rightly turn to thinking about people who face a Christmas on the streets. But we shouldn’t forget about the hidden homeless who face a Christmas in poor quality B&Bs or private hostels.
“So-called temporary housing all too often means a permanent reality of no-fault evictions and lack of the basics we take for granted: it’s hard to have the necessary security to move on to more permanent housing if you don’t even have a lock on your front door.
“We need to see councils setting up temporary accommodation boards to give a real voice to these people and help design housing services that move them from temporary accommodation into a decent and lasting home.”
The IPPR report recommends councils reallocate landlords’ letting fees into inspecting and enforcing basic standards on the quality of accommodation.
It also suggests there should be stronger controls on how landlords evict people so that they must state any grievance clearly and not misuse the system.