Welfare Reforms Causing Homelessness Surge

The BnB crisis is caused by a sharp rise in homelessness triggered directly by the government's welfare reforms. Solving it is costing tens of millions of pounds and resulting in the rehousing of local homeless families outside London.  That trenchant analysis comes not from the usual suspects, however, but from the true-blue Tory-run "flagship" Westminster council.  Westminster has, happily, reduced the numbers of families staying in BnBs for over six weeks from a high of 170 in February 2013 to zero. But homeless families are still suffering -16 families a week are being placed inappropriately (if not illegally) in BnBs, and Westminster is paying - and will continue to pay - a high price for what it admits is a problem in part created and certainly exacerbated by government changes to housing benefit.  Its misdemeanours, the ombudsman heard, were "strongly linked to national policies and is due to factors which are beyond its control". Read more on the Guardian website.