Fears Of 'Catastrophic Coronavirus Outbreak' Among Homeless In Hostels

For now they have no names and little is known about their backgrounds but at least six homeless people linked to hostels in London have died from coronavirus since March, triggering fears that outbreaks in crowded facilities with vulnerable people in poor health sharing bathrooms, dining rooms and even bedrooms could be catastrophic. The six are thought to be the first known homeless victims of the virus in the UK. While most rough-sleepers and people staying in large dormitories in emergency night shelters have been moved into hotels by councils, up to 35,000 people may still be in homeless hostels across the UK. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/19/fears-of-catastrophic-coronavirus-outbreak-among-homeless-in-hostels

Over 120,000 Children Will Wake Up Homeless This Christmas

Over 120,000 children in Britain face spending Christmas homeless and in temporary accommodation, the highest level recorded since 2007. The number of families living in emergency B&B and hostel rooms has risen by a worrying 18% in just a year. Shelter carried out in-depth interviews with 25 families currently or recently living in emergency B&B’s, hostels or sofa-surfing. Findings included:

·         Over 75% of families said they felt their accommodation was unsafe

·         Every family lived in a single room without any space for the children to play

·         60% had to share toilet and bathroom facilities

·         More than 67% said their room was in a state of disrepair, including mould, broken beds and stained mattresses

Read more on the Shelter blog.

Families Evicted For Homeless Centre

More than 70 families are to be evicted from a housing complex to make way for homeless people. Peterborough City Council voted to accept the deal to replace tenants at St Michael's Gate with people from its homeless list, although committee chair Steve Allen said it "stunk of fish". City MP Stewart Jackson said the council's decision was "disappointing" and he raised the issue in the Commons. Landlord Stef & Phillips has not responded to requests for comment. Read more on the BBC website.

More Than 103,000 Children 'Homeless At Christmas' In England

The number of children spending Christmas in temporary accommodation in England has reached a seven-year high, the housing charity Shelter has said. New figures show there were 14,670 households accepted as homeless between July and September, the largest number since 2008. According to Shelter, more than 103,000 children will spend Christmas in B&Bs, hostels or temporary rented homes. Ministers said the figures were still half the 2003 and 2004 peak. Read more on the Shelter blog.

Benefit Sanctions Forcing People To Sleep Rough And Go Hungry

Drawing on a survey of more than 1000 people from homeless hostels and day centres in 21 cities, along with 42 in-depth interviews, a Crisis report provides detailed accounts of people being forced to sleep on the street, coping with severe hunger and going without heating in winter.  The report shows that where people had been sanctioned in the past year:

·         21% reported becoming homeless as a result;

·         16% said they had been forced to sleep rough as a result;

·         77% had gone hungry or skipped meals;

·         75% said it negatively affected their mental health;

·         64% had gone without heating;

·         60% found it harder to look for work

Download the report from the Crisis website.

Tenants Facing Rent Rise Of £15 Per Week

In July ministers ordered that all social landlords, including councils and housing associations, reduce rent by one per cent per year each year for the next four years. But Wolverhampton council has based its long term strategy for building maintenance on rents going up. Bosses have launched a consultation featuring a series of options aimed at making up for the shortfall. They include charging 'affordable rent' instead of 'social rent', meaning rents will go up by £15 per week for new tenants. Another proposal is to increase service charges by £2 per week, meaning garage rents and hostel charges would go up by one per cent, along with concierge charges. Read more on the Express & Star website.

Charity Gives London’s Young Homeless Tickets To Sleep On Night Buses

Homeless young people, unable to find beds in emergency hostels, are being given bus tickets to allow them to sleep on London’s night buses as the number of people sleeping rough in the capital soars, a leading homelessness charity has revealed. New Horizon Youth Centre, a day centre in central London that tries to find emergency accommodation for vulnerable young people in crisis situations, said staff distributed bus tickets on a regular basis, and gave young people details about the best routes looping around the capital through the night, so they could have a safe place to sleep. Read more on the Guardian website.

Freud to Review Plans and 'Protect Providers'

The Department for Work and Pensions recently announced a review of plans that could have forced many homeless hostels to close.  Although welcoming this news, Homeless Link has been extremely concerned that the Government’s definition of which services would be exempt does not cover the majority of homelessness hostels.  Lord Freud – Minister for Welfare Reform – has written to us with a clear statement of intent to “protect providers from any unintended consequences”. He wrote that DWP wishes to: “protect refuges and hostels where care is provided by or arranged through a ‘managing agent’ rather than the landlord … I am determined that our reforms will maintain a viable supported housing sector.”  Read more on the Homeless Link website.

Investment Fund Looks To Build Real Future for Homeless

Homelessness charity Broadway has launched a social impact investment fund which aims to provide housing for vulnerable people while generating an income for investors.  The Real Lettings Property Fund aims to raise £15m to £20m in the first tranche, which will be used to buy up to 100 one- and two-bedroom flats in London in the first year that can be let to the Broadway subsidiary Real Lettings. This specialist lettings agency rents property from private sector landlords to sublet to tenants who are moving on from a hostel or temporary accommodation, and who are vulnerable to homelessness.  Read more on the Guardian website.

One in Four Rough Sleepers Helped By Winter Shelters

A charity is urging local authorities to use winter shelters to cut rough sleeping after finding more than a quarter of the people who used them last year returned to the streets.  The research from umbrella group Homeless Link also found almost half of those that were helped by local authority cold weather shelters were known rough sleepers. Homeless Link surveyed every local authority in the UK and the 101 that responded told them they provided emergency cold weather support to 2308 people during winter 2011. They found that:

    *the majority of provision provided was in hostels or local B&Bs

    *34% of clients had no previous contact with services

    *At least 737 clients who were helped moved on successfully either to  other services or into accommodation, yet

    *one in four people leaving cold weather provision returned to the streets

Read more on the Homeless Link website.

Shared Accommodation Rate - Exemptions

*Local Authority and Housing Association tenants—Social sector tenants normally have their rent met in full (less deductions for non-dependants and earnings) as rents are generally below market rates.

*Tenants in certain supported accommodation—Tenants who are in accommodation where the landlord is a county council, voluntary organisation or charity and provides care, support or supervision. These cases are assessed under pre 1996 rules which recognise that their housing costs may be more expensive.

*Claimants entitled to the severe disability premium—customers in receipt of middle or higher rate care component of disability living allowance provided no one gets a carer's allowance for them.

*Claimants under the age of 22 who were formerly in social services care—Allows care leavers some leeway to become settled and establish links whereby they could share accommodation with others.

The Government has added two further exemptions for those aged over 25:

*A small group of ex-offenders subject to active multi-agency management under the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). Offenders subject to MAPPA are in the main 25 years or over. This is considered appropriate in order to safeguard the public rather than relying on discretionary housing payments.

*People who have spent three months or more in a homeless hostel specialising in rehabilitating and resettling this group within the community. The three month qualifying condition is designed to target people receiving sustained rehabilitation rather than those who have sporadic, short term stays. Targeted at people aged 25 years and over as there is increasing prevalence among this age group of rough sleeping.