It comes following new analysis from the charity Shelter
It’s a “scandal” which will see many in Hull and East Yorkshire spend Christmas without a home to live in – and now the worst places for the issue have been revealed.
Fresh analysis from homelessness charity Shelter drawing on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures shows that 656 people were homeless in Hull as of June, which corresponds to one in 420 people in the area. Meanwhile, there were some 486 individuals homeless in the East Riding of Yorkshire at that time, representing one in every 732 local residents..
Among these, approximately 625 in Hull and 477 in East Yorkshire were housed in temporary accommodation. The charity calculates there were 31 in Hull and nine in East Yorkshire sleeping rough, based on Autumn 2024 figures.
According to the research 382,618 people across England, including 175,025 children, will face Christmas without a home.
Drawing on Government statistics and data secured through Freedom of Information requests, the charity discovered a record-breaking 350,480 homeless individuals are residing in temporary accommodation, including 84,240 families. This represents the highest figure since records commenced and shows that 90 per cent of homeless people are housed in this type of accommodation.
The charity’s examination shows the recorded number of homeless individuals has climbed by a “shocking” eight per cent in the year leading to June, representing an additional 28,602 people. This shocking statistic reveals that one in every 153 people across the nation lacks a proper home, a figure that Shelter says “reflects sharp rises in the number of people sleeping rough and record numbers of families with children forced to live in temporary accommodation”.
The charity highlighted how a dire shortage of social housing, sky-high private rental costs and the frozen housing benefit are driving increasing numbers into homelessness. This comes as the Government unveiled a comprehensive new strategy aimed at cutting rough sleeping by half and preventing additional households from losing their homes, backed by a £3.5 billion investment spanning the next three years.
The study also revealed that more than half (202,587) of England’s homeless population are concentrated in London, where one in 45 residents lacks a permanent home. Newham, situated in East London, holds the unenviable distinction of having the nation’s worst homelessness rate, with one in 18 people without a home.
Beyond the capital, Slough bears the brunt as the most severely affected local authority, with one in 43 residents homeless. Hastings follows with one in 60, while Manchester and Birmingham both record one in 61.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has unveiled a fresh cross-government strategy aimed at tackling rough sleeping and homelessness. The ambitious new approach promises to cut the number of long-term rough sleepers by half, eliminate the unlawful practice of housing families in B&Bs for more than six weeks as temporary accommodation, and prevent thousands more households from losing their homes.
The initiative will receive backing through a substantial £3.5 billion investment spanning the next three years.
Sarah Elliott, the CEO of Shelter, said: “With more than 382,000 people homeless today, the Government is doing the right thing by giving this scandal the attention it deserves.
“While the focus on preventing homelessness in its strategy is positive, we still badly need a plan to get the people who are currently stuck in temporary accommodation, or on the streets, into a safe home.”
Elliott welcomed the Government’s £39 billion investment in social and affordable homes announced earlier this year, but cautioned that “until a lot more of these social homes are built, one of the only ways to escape homelessness is if you can afford to pay a private rent”. She said: “We know from our frontline services this is almost impossible to do when housing benefit remains frozen, and that is where the homelessness strategy falls short.
“Many of the families calling Shelter are stuck in inherently damaging temporary accommodation for years – this should not be the tolerated norm.
“For the Government’s strategy to work, its goal must be to wipe out homelessness in its entirety. This requires unfreezing housing benefit to help people right now, as well as delivering 90,000 new social rent homes a year for 10 years.”
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “Homelessness is one of the most profound challenges we face as a society, because at the heart, it’s about people.
“Families deserve stability, children need a safe place to grow, and individuals simply want the dignity of a home.
“Through our new strategy we can build a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and not repeated. With record investment, new duties on public services, and a relentless focus on accountability, we will turn ambition into reality.”