Homeless support up 3,400 in a year
The number of households and individuals who received homeless support from councils has risen by 3,400 this year, official figures reveal.
Statistics released by the Communities and Local Government department yesterday show that in 2012/13, 202,400 people were helped by local authorities, irrespective of whether they were entitled to statutory provision.
This is up from 199,000 in 2011/12, a rise of 1.7 per cent.
Of the 2012/13 cases, 181,500 (90 per cent) were preventions and 21,000 (10 per cent) were cases of relief.
Jack Dromey, shadow housing minister, said: ‘[The] figures show there has been a rapid increase in the number of people seeking help compared with three years ago as a result of the government’s cost of living crisis and the biggest housing crisis in a generation.
‘The best prevention measure the government could take to tackle this growing crisis would be to build the homes the country desperately needs,’ he added.
Homeless prevention is when a household or individual is helped to obtain alternative accommodation or is enabled to remain in their existing home.
Homeless relief takes place when a council is unable to prevent homelessness but assists someone in securing accommodation, even if the local authority has no statutory obligation to do so.
Fifty-three per cent of the cases involved a household being helped into alternative accommodation, while 47 per cent involved households or individuals supported to stay in their existing home.
The most common action taken to prevent or relieve homelessness was the use of landlord incentive schemes to secure private rented accommodation.
