The Government has acknowledged that family homelessness, with children living in temporary housing, is a ‘national scandal’. The scandal is even bigger than they realise. Labour says it has a ‘moral mission’ to build more social housing but they also have a moral responsibility to take action on housing allocation rules which are punishing indebted homeless families across the country.
Professor Katherine Brickell, Professor of Urban Studies, King’s College London.
24 October 2024
Thousands of households trapped in temporary accommodation because of council rules on debt
Thousands of homeless households – including children and many domestic violence victims – are stuck in temporary accommodation in England because of council rules on housing-debt, new research revealed today.
Researchers from King’s College London and Oxford Brookes University found during December last year alone there were 3,797 households in temporary accommodation who are not being rehomed because local authority rules say people with housing-related debt are ineligible or less of a priority for social housing. This included more than 1,500 children and many domestic violence victims.
And they say this figure is likely to be a significant under-estimate because many councils, especially in London, failed to provide information, so they believe the true figure to be upwards of 10,000 households in England who are stuck in temporary accommodation because of local authority rules on debt.
They are calling for an urgent review and for greater monitoring of the impact of these rules, highlighting how:
- debt is a key reason why people become homeless
- it often worsens once they are homeless
- being in temporary accommodation has immediate and long-term detrimental physical and mental health impacts on people
- debt-related eligibility rules in council housing allocation policies are unscrutinised and not widely known about.
Depending on the local authority, applicants who are in arrears can become ineligible, or are deprioritised in the housing allocation system. The researchers said this means women and children, including domestic violence survivors, can remain in limbo in temporary accommodation until they can reduce or clear their arrears, or in some cases, prove their ‘intent to pay’.
The research team said stays in temporary accommodation need to be as short and safe as possible given the detrimental physical and mental health impacts faced by children and adults in the immediate and longer term.
Co-author Dr Mel Nowicki, Reader in Urban Geography, Oxford Brookes University said: “At a minimum the rules need review; and councils and central government need to be able to monitor who is being impacted by the very policies they have designed.
"The flexibility given to local authorities in the Statutory Guidance on Social Housing Allocations is not acceptable given the harms housing-related debt rules are doing to families. At the absolute bare minimum, victims of domestic abuse should be explicitly excluded from housing-related debt rules.”
Professor Brickell added that households in temporary accommodation are being judged as financial risks as tenants rather than as vulnerable families with children who need housing.
"The human costs of these rules are simply too high to justify," she says.
For the new research, presented at the Shared Health Foundation’s Homeless Families Conference on 24 October, the team analysed the housing allocation policies of all 294 councils in England, excluding county councils. They found:
- 88% have an ineligibility policy linked to housing-related debt
- 54% have a deprioritisation policy linked to housing-related debt
- 70% have an ‘intent to pay’ policy.
They also discovered some councils are far more punitive than others, and a ‘postcode lottery’ characterises the policy landscape. Also, while 94% of council policies mention domestic abuse in their housing allocation policies, only 17% specifically state that they exempt victims from housing-related debt rules.
The team sent FOI requests to 294 councils and, from the responses received, they discovered 43% of the 3,797 households in temporary accommodation included at least one child under the age of 18 and five percent of these households included a child who was two years old or under.
In the responses, London was found to be a hotspot for the numbers of households impacted by debt ineligibility rules, with 79% of ineligible households in temporary accommodation living in a London Borough.
For families experiencing homelessness, debt is typically a necessity rather than a choice. Spiralling rents in the private rented sector, the cost of living, and the retrenchment of welfare and public services under austerity, have all taken their toll.
Fraser Curry, doctoral researcher, King’s College London
The research team have been looking at the issue since 2022, when they collaborated with the Shared Health Foundation in Greater Manchester to better understand the financial challenges of family homelessness and life in temporary accommodation. This resulted in a research report in October 2023 which found debt is a major factor why families become homeless, it worsens during stays in temporary accommodation, and it then continues to impact on families’ futures even when homelessness ends.
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Professor of Urban Studies
PhD student