Homelessness has risen 11% in just three months, latest Government figures reveal.
Over 74,000 households in England became homeless or were at imminent risk of becoming homeless between January and March 2022. The figures show homelessness rising, including 25,610 families with children.
“These figures are a stark and sad reminder of the high numbers of people our frontline teams are seeing day in, day out.
“I fear it’s only going to get worse, as the cost of living crisis continues with another energy price hike due in October, as we head into Winter,” said Carolyn Wood, Oasis Community Housing’s Director of Programmes, commenting on the news around homelessness rising.
“We are seeing more people begging – on the brink of homelessness – having to use it as a last resort in a bid to pay their rent, keep a roof over their head and put food in their stomach.
“Last week our Outreach team found six people sleeping rough in one night alone. For every man or woman we are helping to move off the street, there seems to be another one to take their place.”
The figures, from the start of 2022, reveal the number of households that were struggling to keep a roof over their heads even before the impact of soaring bills, which are expected to put more families into debt. A 5% rise on the same period in 2021.
The Government’s latest homelessness data also revealed that, despite being in full-time work, 10,560 households were found to be homeless or threatened with homelessness. This is the highest number of people in full-time work recorded as homeless since Government records began four years ago.
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