There’s been a 15.7% increase in the number of households using temporary accommodation compared to two years ago, Statutory Homelessness Statistics from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has revealed.
In all there are 126,040 households in temporary accommodation, including 164,040 children.
The ending of a private tenancy accounted for over a quarter of homelessness prevention and relief cases, the largest one cause of homelessness.
Nye Jones, head of campaigns, for Generation Rent, said: “Behind every statistic are thousands of stories of people facing some of the most stressful, traumatic and insecure times of their lives.
“It could be a pensioner staring down the barrel of homelessness because of one too many complaints about a leaking roof.
“It could be a single mother, evicted by her landlord through no fault of her own and now trying to raise her children in temporary accommodation, dealing with issues like damp, mould and overcrowding.
“At the same time, providing temporary accommodation is crippling local authority finances.”
The number of families and children using temporary accommodation increased month-on-month by 2.4% and 2.7% respectively.
She added: “The government’s plans to end Section 21 Evictions through the Renters’ Rights Bill is welcome. It will stop thousands of people from having to experience homelessness because their landlord feels like it.
“However, there are also few measures in the Bill to prevent landlords using rent hikes as evictions.
“Putting a limit on how much landlords can raise the rent would prevent this and go a long way to turning off the tap from private renting to homelessness and temporary accommodation.”
